Resistance
by TheFrogFromHell
Summary: In 2015, the Kanto region is under the control of the corporate giant, Rocket Inc., while violent, unexplainable storms threaten Johto. AU, sort of. This can be read as a stand-alone story, or as a companion to "Hybrid". Longer summary inside— please read!
1. 00

**Summary:**

It is the year 2015. With the Kanto region under the control of the corporate giant, Rocket Inc., and mysterious, violent storms raging in Johto, Clair and Lance are finding themselves pushed up against a wall. Meanwhile, Jessie and James, who defected from Team Rocket over a decade ago, receive an ominous warning from a legendary pokemon that the end of the world is approaching. As conditions worsen, it becomes more and more clear that there is something awry in the world… but in order to fix it, the very fabric of the universe may need to be rewoven.

**Author's Note**:

Less than a month after completing my "Human" trilogy, I am back! I hadn't planned for my return to come quite so soon, but a story such as this cannot remain untold for long. As always, I value the feedback of my readers very much, so if you would be kind enough to leave a review, it would be much appreciated. Updates will be posted regularly on **Monday** and **Friday **mornings at approximately **9 am US Pacific Time.**

This is the prologue, so it is short (but IMPORTANT!). After the prologue, there will be five main characters in this story: Clair, Lance, Jessie, James, and one more that will remain a surprise until later. The plot may seem complicated at first, but, if you keep reading, you just might figure out how everything fits together.

Cheers,

~TheFrogFromHell

**00**

**Guyana, South America, 1993**

Marvin frowned and adjusted the straps of his backpack, which felt enormously heavy on his shoulders. He was thirsty, and the half empty water bottle inside his pack called to him, but physical exhaustion made reaching around and fumbling around inside the bag seem like a daunting task.

Dr. Fuji, on the other hand, seemed to have boundless energy. He darted around the jungle, examining all the patches of flora and passing swarms of bug pokemon meticulously, as if they fascinated him. Marvin sighed and shifted his weight uncomfortably again.

"How much longer, Doc?" Marvin inquired, glancing at his watch. _Three hours, _he thought. _H__ave we really only been out here that long?_

"Until we find something," Dr. Fuji replied distractedly as he began crashing through a patch of tall weeds. "We're hot on the trail of this legendary pokemon, I tell you. I can smell it!"

_I think you just smell _me_, _Marvin thought sarcastically. It was hot and humid here in the jungle, and his copious amounts of sweat made his clothing cling to his body as if it was pasted on him with a thin glue.

Today was Dr. Fuji's last scheduled day to explore the jungle. After finding some unusual fossilized footprints in an area nearby, Dr. Fuji had been convinced there was a new species of pokemon just waiting to be discovered here. However, Marvin wasn't so sure; they'd been scouring the jungle for two weeks, with little to show for it but sweaty clothes and a dwindling food supply.

The project had initially seemed promising to the other scientists making up Dr. Fuji's research team, but by now everyone was ready to call it quits. Except Dr. Fuji.

Marvin trudged behind Dr. Fuji, impatiently waiting until the older scientist was ready to call it a day. As the angle of the sun changed and hints of twilight began to appear, Fuji sighed, shaking his head dejectedly and turning to Marvin.

"I suppose you were right, kid," the doctor said. Appearing perplexed, he scratched his graying head and then shoved his hands into his pockets. "I was so certain that we'd find what we were looking for here. This feels strange, somehow…" he pressed his lips together in a thin line for a moment before finishing, "I suppose I'm just disappointed."

"No problem, Doc," Marvin said, trying to disguise his relief that they were heading back to camp. "I mean, it is too bad we didn't find anything, but there will be other important projects, you know."

"Yes," Dr. Fuji agreed, though he still looked uncertain.

Together, the two scientists began their short journey back to their camp, where they would pack up their tent and supplies, get into their vehicle, and return to the lab to report no unusual findings.


	2. 01

**01**

Clair was so cold she couldn't feel her face; it was like she had a thick, puffy mask where it should have been. Her hands, clothed in thick leather gloves and buried deep in her pockets, still had some sensation in them, but she guessed that her fingernails were bluer than Kingdra's scales. At this moment, she could understand why her dragons hated ice-type moves so much.

_Almost there, _she thought begrudgingly, trudging through the knee-deep snow as quickly as she could to Pryce's house. _If the old man would be just a little less stubborn and actually leave town after multiple blizzard warnings, I wouldn't be in this mess!_

For the last few months, bizarre storms had plagued the Johto region. "Blizzard" was the word the newscasters used to describe them, though really they were a combination of fast, freezing winds, thunder, and precipitation that ranged from snow to sleet to hale the size of golf balls.

As soon as Clair had heard the warnings to evacuate Mahogany Town, she'd known that Pryce wouldn't obey them. Living close by in Blackthorn, she'd barely evaded the evacuation herself. It seemed that no matter what the circumstances were, Pryce always believed he would be safe as long as he had his cup of tea and his piloswine at his side. It was true that, being an ice-type trainer, he had plenty of knowledge about normal winter weather, but these storms weren't normal, and Pryce didn't seem to want to accept that. _Hate to break it to you, Pryce, _Clair thought, _but if you stay in Mahogany for this storm, you'll be trapped in your own home like a rattata in a cage. And that's assuming the house's infrastructure stays intact…_ As reluctant as Clair was to face the miserable weather, Pryce had always been like a second grandfather to her, and she wasn't about to let a blizzard bring him to an untimely end.

Speaking of winds, Clair shrieked as an icy gust of air blew her hood back, exposing her bare ears and neck. Seeing the outline of Pryce's house ahead, and moving even faster than she thought she could, she made a beeline for the front door. Upon arrival, she violently yanked the door open without knocking, thrust herself inside it, and slammed it firmly behind her.

With blue lips and chattering teeth, she waited for Pryce to come greet her. Surely enough, she heard his light footsteps and the knocking of his wooden walking stick on the floor as he padded towards her from his study in the back of the house. He stopped a few feet away from her, taking a moment to examine her. Clair must have been a somewhat remarkable sight to take in; she stood a full head taller than Pryce, and her waist-length blue ponytail was soaking wet from the storm, making it appear even longer. Her frozen leather gloves and ice-encrusted dragon trainer's cloak completed her ensemble. Clair had never known Pryce to show much emotion, but his mouth turned up into a slight smile as he took her in.

"Hello, Clair," he said, nodding his head to her. "Would you care to join me for a cup of tea?"

…

A few minutes later, Clair and Pryce sat across from each other at a battered and stained table in Pryce's kitchen. Clair had tried to insist they leave immediately, but Pryce had refused, and she'd known it was no use arguing with him. She hoped that after he'd had his tea he'd be less adverse to the idea, but somehow that seemed unlikely. _I might have to get Dragonair to bind him with its tail and drag him away, _she thought, only partly joking.

Clair took a sip of her tea and gagged at the bitter taste, barely able to refrain from spitting it out. "What _is _this?" she exclaimed, grimacing.

"Ah," Pryce replied calmly, "it is a very unique blend of medicinal herbs." He took a sip, apparently relishing the flavor. "It should be drunk twice a day for optimal health."

_Twice a day? _Clair thought, _how about once a lifetime? _"Alright," Clair said, taking another tiny sip and shuddering. "Do you have some honey I can add to it?"

Pryce frowned and paused for a moment. "I have never thought of adding that before," he said, "I don't believe I have any."

_Figures, _Clair thought.

The two sat in silence, and Clair began to tap her foot anxiously. She had regained sensation in her toes, which told her they'd stayed in the house too long already.

"Pryce," Clair urged him, "the storm is on its way. Those evacuation warnings said to get to the Lake of Rage as soon as possible. We can't stay here—"

"Nonsense, child," Pryce said, holding up his hand and irritating Clair more than he realized. She hated being interrupted, and even more than that she hated being called a child. "Like a thousand-year-old tree, I have endured a great deal, and I will stand strong through the storm."

Seriously annoyed, Clair exclaimed, "Maybe _you _will stand strong, but your house might not! A storm as powerful as the one they've warned us about could destroy this place, and then Lance and I would have to come back again to pick up the pieces and defrost a frozen Pryce-cicle."

Still unaffected, Pryce chuckled and said, "If you're concerned about the storm, dragon master, then go! Just leave me here with my pokemon, and do as you please. An old man like myself has no business traveling all the way out to the Lake of Rage."

"Staying alive should be your business," Clair retaliated, raising her voice and standing up from her chair.

"My dear, if you recall, half a dozen storms have come and passed since this winter began, and we are all still very much alive."

"But don't you see?" Clair cried. "They're getting worse!"

Clair jumped in surprise as she heard a loud, desperate banging on the front door.

"I'll get it," she said, reluctant to end the conversation.

"No, allow me," Pryce contradicted as he reached for his walking stick and hobbled to the house's entrance. Clair followed behind him, fairly certain she knew who was at the door.

Sure enough, the very instant that Pryce turned the doorknob, Clair's cousin, Lance, flew in along with a blast of frigid air. Behind him, his cold, miserable dragonite howled, and Lance quickly returned it to its pokeball as Pryce closed the door.

A light dusting of snow that had blown in from outside covered the floor, quickly melting. Lance, shivering and gasping for air, looked even worse off than Clair had; his bright red hair, usually wild and unruly, was saturated with freezing water, some of it plastered to his face. His regal cape looked even more worse for wear than Clair's, and she wondered why he hadn't thought to put on something besides his best training outfit for the journey over. _Because he's Lance, _she remembered, rolling her eyes. _He always has to look the part of a master, even when braving a blizzard. _

Without preamble, Lance looked directly at Clair and Pryce and asserted, "We need to get out of here. Now." Addressing Clair sternly, he added, "What are you still doing here? I told you to meet me at the Lake of Rage an hour ago."

"It's not like I didn't try," Clair argued, "but Pryce won't leave. He thinks he's safe here."

Lance shook his head fervently. "It's brutal out there. We have to leave right now if we have any chance of making it to the Lake of Rage."

"Why the Lake of Rage?" Pryce inquired, and Clair wondered if he was softening to the idea of evacuation. _Of course, _she thought. _He'll listen to Lance, but not me._ When Clair and Lance had been growing up together, most adults had considered him to be more level-headed than she, and even now that they were both adults, Pryce seemed to be somewhat fixed in his beliefs that Lance was "the voice of reason" between the two. That annoyed Clair, but she figured that, in his old age, Pryce was unlikely to change anytime soon.

"The winds aren't as strong there, because of the lower elevation," Lance explained, "and there's a safe house there where we can stay. Also, I heard there's supposed to be some kind of gathering… a 'town hall' meeting, I guess, for the residents of Mahogany Town."

"Great time for a meeting," Clair commented sarcastically.

"And this is no time for joking," Pryce said. "Let us begin our journey to safety. Piloswine!"

Clair scoffed at Pryce's near-instantaneous change of attitude after Lance's arrival. She heard the click-clacking of hooves on Pryce's hard floor, and, soon, an enormous piloswine appeared next to its trainer, peering at him affectionately with its tired old eyes.

Pryce scratched its head lovingly before retrieving a pokeball from his pocket. "Return, Piloswine," he said evenly as he stored his treasured pokemon in a place where it would be safe for the journey.

"Let's go," Lance said, reaching for the doorknob, and the three braced themselves for the unrelenting conditions outside.

…

"Order up!" James yelled, placing a generous portion of chicken wings, coleslaw, and fries up on the counter and then immediately slapping three burger patties on the grill in preparation for his next order.

Jessie, James's longtime business partner, appeared to retrieve the order. Frowning, she tossed her long, red hair over one shoulder and said in her shrill, theatrical tone, "James, where's the order for table three? You know Captain Hugo will flip if he doesn't get his triple cheeseburger on time, and then I won't get any tips!"

Flustered, James replied, "I'm trying, Jessie, but if these burgers were any rarer, they'd be a kangaskhan! They need to cook for longer."

Jessie huffed in frustration and conceded, "Fine. But if you don't speed it up, I'm taking over the kitchen duties next time!"

James gulped. "Nobody wants that," he said to himself quietly, shuddering in terror as he scrambled to melt cheese on the burger patties and dress the buns with ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise.

"What was that?" came Jessie's voice.

"Nothing, Jessie!" James called back, his unnaturally high tenor making it obvious that he was concealing something. Still in doubt that the burgers were done enough, but agreeing with Jessie that Captain Hugo would cause a scene (as he often did) if they weren't out soon, James stacked the burger patties onto a bun, placed the plate on the counter, and yelled, "Order up!"

Jessie returned to retrieve the plate, twirling and humming as she did so. James, figuring the order was satisfied, began to prepare his next order.

Then, after a few seconds, James was startled when he heard a deep, booming voice bellow, "IS THIS A _JOKE_!?"

"Umm… no, sir… I can get you something else if it's…"

"LET ME TALK TO THE CHEF!"

"James!" Jessie yelled, sounding alarmed. James swallowed nervously before sheepishly moving from his station at the grill out to the bar, where Captain Hugo stood angrily with his arms crossed.

"What is this?" The huge sailor demanded, gesturing to his plate, on which sat a triple cheeseburger with a single bite taken out of it.

"It's… a burger?" James replied, the shrillness of his tone reflecting his anxiety.

"No," the sailor said, shaking his head disgustedly. Then, he slammed his thick hands down on the bar, making Jessie and James shriek and jump in surprise. "A pile of cold, raw meat is what this is, and I'm not paying for it!"

"I'm terribly sorry, sir," Jessie lamented, her tone dripping with false concern. "James will gladly make you another one. He's a great cook, really, but sometimes he makes mistakes, like serving raw meat, which he is trying to work on…"

"Jessie!" James exclaimed in irritation, "How is this _my _fault?"

"Well, you did send it out too early," Jessie replied casually.

"You were the one who told me to!"

Jessie put her hands on her hips and glared at him as she retaliated, "Don't try to make this _my _fault, James. I'm just the waitress! You're the one who cooked… or should I say, _didn't _cook, the burgers!"

Neither of them noticed that Captain Hugo had left his plate on the counter and walked out the door unceremoniously, or that all of the other customers at the Olivine Café had stopped eating to stare at Jessie and James.

"That's what I get for listening to you, Jessie—"

Suddenly, there was a flash of translucent red light, and the round, bulbous form of a pokemon appeared next to Jessie.

"Waaaaaah-buffet!" the unwelcome arrival announced proudly.

"Grrr… get back in your pokeball!" Jessie screeched as James noticed something in the doorway that made his heart sink.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Farley, the owner of the Olivine Café, and Jessie and James's boss, demanded.

"N-nothing," James replied, his voice wavering again.

"It doesn't look like nothing to me," Mr. Farley said, his face reddening in fury as he stepped forward and eyed Wobbuffet disapprovingly. Jessie and James cringed as he approached; he was a big, beefy ex-sailor, and when he had hired them, they'd immediately decided that they never wanted to get on his bad side. "Arguing in front of customers, allowing pokemon behind the counter… unprofessional and unsanitary!" the boss shouted, shaking his head in revulsion. "I know you two haven't been here long, but this is the last straw. You're both fired!"

"But boss, please, it won't happen agai—" Jessie started.

"Get out of my restaurant, now!" the man yelled, and Jessie, James, and Wobbuffet began to make their way towards the door. Most of the customers in the restaurant were staring, wide-eyed.

"And I want my uniforms back!" Mr. Farley added as they approached the door. Jessie and James took off their blue and white aprons and hurled them at their now former boss as they passed by a table where a group of teenagers sat, gaping at Jessie and James.

"What are you looking at, brats?!" Jessie snapped as they exited.

"OUT!" came the furious voice of Mr. Farley.

Once outside, James sighed deeply, dragging his feet on the ground forlornly as he and Jessie began the walk back to their apartment. They had only worked at the Olivine Café for two weeks, and they'd already blown that opportunity, just like all the others before it. _Maybe we're just not meant to hold a regular job,_ James thought, defeated.

"That jerk!" Jessie commented, still somewhat enraged from the encounter. "Firing quality employees for no good reason at all. I mean, look at us— we're good looking, smart, capable, talented, and experienced, and he lets us go for the most _ridiculous _thing!"

"Wobbuffet," the blue pokemon sympathized.

"Shut up!" Jessie snarled. "This is all your fault!"

"Jessie," James said, allowing his mind to wander to the events of the past, "do you ever think we made the wrong decision?"

"Absolutely," Jessie affirmed. "We shouldn't have let that idiot keep our uniforms!"

"No, Jessie," James clarified, "about leaving Team Rocket. Do you ever wish we would have stayed?"

Jessie appeared to think for a moment. "Sometimes," she said. "I mean, we would be living in a mansion right now, with servants waiting on us hand and foot, and a walk-in closet full of brand new dresses and shoes…"

"And slacks and a bowtie and jewel-encrusted cumberbund…" James added. The two paused for a moment to stare ahead with dreamy expressions on their faces.

Then Jessie snapped out of it, shaking her head. "But no, not really. Not all the time. I mean, the stuff that The Boss was asking us to do was…"

"Immoral," James said, finishing her sentence.

"Even for us," Jessie continued, "and that's saying something."

"Wob… buffet," the pokemon commented quietly.

The three finished the journey in silence. They arrived at their apartment, and Jessie fumbled around in her skirt pockets to find their key. The lock on the battered wooden door was old, and it tended to get stuck frequently, so Jessie had to forcefully jiggle the rusty apparatus to get it to open.

Finally, the door creaked open, and the three stepped inside. James flipped up the light switch on the wall, and an old overhead lamp flickered for a moment before coming on and illuminating the room with a dim, yellowish light.

"Home sweet home," James said as they took in the familiar sight of endless clutter, stains on the floor and walls, and the crooked window that never quite closed properly.

"Doesn't look very sweet to me," Jessie pouted, sitting on an ancient, torn couch, which sunk under her weight and emitted a large cloud of dust.

James and Wobbuffet coughed, fanning the dust away.

"I guess now we're going to have to find a new place to live," Jessie speculated, leaning forward and resting her chin on her hand. "But where should we go now? When we left Goldenrod, you said this was our last hope."

"I never said that," James remarked, correcting her. "I just said it was our _best _hope. We could always try Mahogany Town."

"But it's always so cold and stormy there," Jessie complained. "I'll lose my gorgeous tan!"

_What tan? _James thought, always somewhat baffled by Jessie's warped self image.

"I can't believe that's our only option," Jessie said, snatching up a wrinkled newspaper from an end table next to the couch. James watched as she thumbed through the classified ads.

After a few moments, she made a frustrated noise and exclaimed, "All of these are outside of our price range!"

"Jessie... we don't have a price range. You have to have income to have a price range."

She frowned and read aloud, "Cherrygrove… definitely not… Azalea Town, no… Violet City's too much of a tourist trap…" She scoffed, "as if we'd even consider Goldenrod again after how that old hag in the flower shop treated me..." She read on and gasped. "James! Ecruteak City!"

James winced. "You can't mean you want us to work as Kimono Girls, Jessie…"

"Don't be silly, James!" she replied, thrusting the newspaper at him. "Look!"

James's jaw dropped as he saw the enormous portrait at the top of the page. It was a close up of a decidedly feline face, with its wide, twinkling yellow eyes peeking out from under a black, rimmed magician's hat. The pokemon smiled mischievously and held a deck of cards expertly in his paw.

"We are delighted to invite you to attend an evening of wonder and excitement," James read aloud. "For the weekend of September first through the third, the staff at the Ecruteak Theater is pleased to present The Astonishing Magic Cat, who will be performing incredible tricks that will leave you dazzled and amazed."

"I can't believe it," Jessie exclaimed aloud. "When Meowth left us to pursue his career, I never thought he would actually get famous!"

"September first through third…" James read again. "The third… hey, that's tonight!"

"Tonight?" Jessie asked, frowning. "I _would_ like to see Meowth, but… how could we possibly make it all the way to Ecruteak tonight?"

James glanced at the clock, which hung crookedly on the wall. "It's five thirty," he speculated. "If we leave now and make good time, we could get there by eight."

"Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet, who James had forgotten about, concurred.

"Alright, fine, since both of you are so excited about it," Jessie agreed, standing up and turning to her pokemon. "But only on one condition— you're going back inside your pokeball!"

"Waaaahhhhbb!" the blue pokemon protested as it was transformed into a beam of faint red light and returned to its temporary home.

"Let's go," Jessie said, gesturing to the door.


	3. 02

**02**

Lance was immensely relieved as he, Clair, and Pryce flew out of range of the blizzard. They were each riding on the back of one of Lance's dragonite, and the Lake of Rage was just coming into view.

"Damn," Clair said, smoothly gliding ahead of Pryce to settle at Lance's side, "look at all those people."

Lance whistled as he took in the sight below. _I didn't realize Mahogany's population was so high, _he thought. Something odd was that, in the center of the crowd, there was a raised area that appeared very much like a stage. As Lance, Clair, and Pryce drew closer, Lance noticed that a microphone and speakers stood on top of the platform, and a red and black banner with words he couldn't quite make out decorated the front of it.

"Lance," Clair asked, sounding puzzled, "what's going on?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "That stuff wasn't here when I left to go find you guys."

"Something fishy is in the air," Pryce called from behind them, "and I don't believe it's the magikarp in the lake."

Lance nodded in agreement. There was definitely something strange afoot at the Lake of Rage.

The three dragonite slowly descended to the ground, landing gracefully and allowing their riders to dismount their orange, scaly backs.

"Thanks, team," Lance said graciously to his pokemon, who bowed their heads to him in acknowledgement. "Return!" he commanded, holding up his pokeballs and reclaiming his pokemon.

Studying the crowd from a few yards away, Lance was once again made aware of how strange the situation was. Usually, when he made an appearance, flying in gallantly on his prized dragonite's back, he was the center of attention. His signature cape and spiky red hairstyle reminded everyone that he, Lance, a former Pokemon League champion and current dragon master, had arrived. _One _dragonite was normally enough to get people's attention, so _three _should have attracted quite the crowd.

But today, this was not the case. Everyone appeared fixated on the stage as two figures— a man and a woman, dressed in tailored, black, corporate-looking suits— stepped up to the microphone. Now that he was closer, Lance could make out the writing on the banner hanging from the stage— "ROCKET, INC."

The woman, who had striking golden-blonde locks; dark, slanted eyes that scanned the crowd; and a sly smile, clasped the mic in her gloved hand before stating, "Hello, residents of Mahogany Town and visitors from Blackthorn City and Newbark Town. My name is Cassidy McLarty, and I and my partner, Butch, are representatives of Rocket Incorporated."

Lance's blood ran cold. He had started hearing about Rocket Inc. several years ago, and he'd heard rumors that they had started out as a small criminal organization, though he wasn't aware of the details. What he did know was that they had gained some degree of power over the Kanto region over a course of ten or so years. Lance had not been to Kanto at all in a couple of years (S.S. Anne, the ship that transported passengers from Olivine to Vermillion, had not been in operation lately, making traveling there inconvenient for many trainers), so he wasn't exactly sure of the extent of Rocket Inc.'s influence over the region.

"First and foremost, allow me to say that I sympathize with everyone who was forced to abandon their homes due to the blizzard warnings. My home and family are everything to me, so I fully understand how difficult that must have been."

Clair turned to Lance and raised an eyebrow. "Fake," she mouthed to Lance, and he nodded in agreement— Cassidy's speech sounded awfully rehearsed. However, the rest of the crowd appeared to be listening politely as she spoke.

"Which is why," Cassidy said, "Rocket Inc. is stepping in to help provide whatever blizzard relief and support the Johto region needs during this challenging time."

Lance heard a few people murmur to each other, and many spectators applauded. However, Lance was still wary of this woman's intentions. Usually, when corporations did something "charitable", it was something that also benefited them, typically by improving their public image and ultimately providing them with more income.

"Rocket Inc. is a forward-thinking organization founded by a few visionary mavericks over fifteen years ago," Cassidy continued. "Our vision was to create a new, exciting, and groundbreaking Pokemon League Challenge system that would be beneficial to both pokemon and their trainers. We have found great success in Kanto, with more talented pokemon masters being recognized every year!"

Lance scoffed disgustedly. At the end of his short run at Indigo Plateau, the Elite Four trainers had been bombarded with new (and ridiculous) rules and regulations, which had eventually led Lance to leave his position as Pokemon League champion. Now, he realized that Rocket Inc. was probably to blame for these changes.

"Lance… I got an email about a week ago that I'd forgotten about until just now," Clair whispered to Lance, and he leaned in closer to her to better hear her words. "It was from Whitney, the gym leader in Goldenrod City." Clair rolled her eyes disapprovingly; Lance knew that his cousin had never been the gym leader's biggest fan. "She said something about having a meeting with some big business organization. I'm guessing now that it was Rocket Inc."

"I got that email too," Pryce said, "and I didn't like it."

Lance frowned and narrowed his eyes, watching Cassidy and her partner intently.

"And Rocket Inc. would like nothing more than to expand into the Johto region. With our resources, technology, and innovative training techniques, we could help make Johto's Pokemon League Challenge system the best it has ever been!" She clapped her hands and looked out at the faces in the crowd, smiling brightly.

_I don't like where this is going, _Lance thought.

The woman's partner, Bob (or whatever his name was; Lance had forgotten already) took hold of the mic. "But we're going to start here, with doing whatever we can to help you recover from this terrible storm. We are here for you— whatever you need, Rocket Inc. can provide," he announced in a gruff voice. He also sounded very much like he was regurgitating a rehearsed script rather than speaking genuinely.

"It doesn't sound like they have any definite plans for the expansion yet," Lance said quietly to Clair and Pryce. "That's good news…"

"Rocket Inc.'s ultimate goal is the prosperity and happiness of people and pokemon," Cassidy said, jumping in again.

Suddenly, somewhere in the crowd, a male voice that Lance didn't recognize yelled, "You're a couple of dirty liars! I don't know about anyone else, but I refuse to listen to your bullshit!"

Cassidy's dark eyes flashed, and Lance saw something in them that definitely wasn't happiness or prosperity. "I'm sorry you feel that way," she said with a syrupy sweetness that made Lance feel nauseous.

"Well, I'm not," the speaker responded bluntly. All of the bystanders around him had moved away slightly, leaving an envelope of space around the speaker and making him visible to Lance.

He was young— maybe sixteen or seventeen— blond, and very thin. His disheveled, greasy hair and shabby clothing told Lance that he was probably homeless, or perhaps just had very poor parents who couldn't afford to take proper care of him.

"You ruined my life in Kanto," the boy shouted furiously, "and now you want to come here, too? People, you can't believe them! There's a reason they're blocking access to Kanto; it's not because of ship repairs—"

"That's enough," Cassidy interrupted frantically. "Security!"

Swiftly, two men dressed all in black swiftly navigated through the crowd toward the boy, who tried to resist them, but to no avail.

"Don't be idiots!" the blond yelled as he was dragged away. "Don't listen to them! Go to Kanto and see for yourself! Go—"

He was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car, which quickly revved to life and drove away.

"That was…" Clair started to say.

"Intense," Lance finished.

"That poor young man," Pryce added.

Cassidy, hastily recovering from the incident, cleared her throat and said into the mic, "We're very sorry, everyone. That boy was a danger to himself and to others, and he needed to be detained."

_A danger? _Lance thought. _Hardly. _He had the sinking feeling that a lot had changed in Kanto, and all for the worst, since he had left the region.

What's-His-Name, Cassidy's partner, took hold of the microphone again and said, "But our goal is to think positively and move forward. Let's not dwell on the negative. The Kanto region is doing great, and so is the Johto region, but let's make it our mutual goal to make both of them even greater!"

There was polite applause, and Lance rolled his eyes.

"People are so fickle," Pryce observed, "too easily swayed, like tall reeds in a strong wind."

"Speaking of strong winds," Clair said, shivering, and Lance realized that all three of them were still soaking wet from the journey. "Let's get to that safe house. I could use a towel and a cup of hot cocoa right about now."

"Or tea," added Pryce.

"Okay," Lance agreed distractedly, starting to head towards the wooden building, which stood a few hundred yards away. He couldn't stop thinking about the young, blond boy… something about that whole situation really bothered him, and he decided he was going to get to the bottom of it.

…

Jessie yawned again, beginning to regret her and James's decision to travel to Ecruteak so late in the evening, after work. _Maybe we should have waited until Meowth's _next_ show to see him,_ she considered. _I need my beauty sleep._

But they had already reached Route 38— halfway through the journey— so there was no point in turning back now.

It was beginning to get dark, and all of the nighttime pokemon were emerging; Jessie heard the distant cooing of a noctowl and the subtle sounds of rattata scurrying in the brush. The air was chilly, and everything was shrouded in a thick, moist fog, which was subtly dampening Jessie's clothing. She shivered, wishing she would have brought a jacket.

The fog seemed to be getting thicker and thicker as they progressed on, making Jessie a little nervous.

"It's so hard to see anything," James observed, turning to Jessie. "Are you sure we're not going to get lost?"

"Us? Lost? No way, James. We're experienced travelers." But Jessie wasn't entirely sure she believed her own words. _I wish we had a fire pokemon to light the way, _she thought regretfully. But she and James had never been particularly skilled at acquiring new pokemon.

The duo stopped abruptly as they heard a loud rustling in the bushes.

"What's that?" James questioned, sounding panicked.

"Maybe it's nothing," Jessie answered feebly, though she was just as anxious as her partner.

The two shrieked in terror and clutched each other tightly when they heard a menacing growl emanating from the same location as the rustling had come from. The growling got louder and louder as Jessie and James screamed and held on to each other for dear life…

Then, a disgruntled snubbull emerged from the brush, shooting them a distasteful glance as it passed them by and continued on its way. "Snub," it commented, shaking its head tiredly as it disappeared into the fog.

Jessie and James let go of each other, breathing a sigh of relief. Neither of them was willing to admit their embarrassment to the other, so they simply traveled on.

Ahead, Jessie started to make out two faint, glowing red lights.

"Look James," she exclaimed excitedly, "there's the city! We're almost there!"

"Jessie… I don't know if that's…"

The pair stopped in their tracks when they realized they were not looking at lights, but the enormous, luminous red eyes of a pokemon.

A huge, ferocious-looking pokemon with six-inch long fangs and razor-sharp claws.

Jessie and James stood frozen in fear, sure that the pokemon would shred them to pieces if they moved an inch.

Had Jessie not been so terrified, she probably would have found the pokemon to be rather fascinating and unusual looking; it was clad in a coat of thick yellow fur, with an intricate pattern of black stripes running down its back and legs. Its face was partially covered with what appeared to be some sort of hard, protective armor, and a purple mane made of something that reminded Jessie of rain clouds swirled behind the pokemon's head.

Jessie and James gasped as the pokemon did something completely unexpected— it spoke to them.

**Humans**, it communicated in a deep, powerful voice, and Jessie realized she was hearing the words in her mind, rather than in her ears. **Do not fear me.**

"Is that…" Jessie whispered.

"A legendary pokemon!" James finished, in awe.

**In the past, **the pokemon continued, **I have avoided humans, but now I will speak to anyone who crosses my path, for your race is our only hope.**

Jessie and James looked at each other inquisitively. _Only hope? _Jessie thought. _What could it possibly mean? _Turning back to the pokemon, James asked,

"Only hope for what?"

**For saving the world, **the pokemon answered.

"What?!" Jessie and James both exclaimed at the same time.

**This universe… it is unstable, **it explained, though Jessie was only becoming more confused as it spoke. **Something is wrong. Out of balance.**

"Uh… okay," Jessie said, raising an eyebrow to James, who shrugged his shoulders. "And… you want _us _to fix it?"

**It was a human who created this problem, **said the pokemon, **and it will take a human to resolve it.**

"Well, uh, thanks for the heads up, Mr., um, pokemon," James stammered, "but… I think you picked the wrong humans. We always seem to mess up everything we try, so asking us to try to save the world probably isn't the best idea."

"James!" Jessie objected, but deep down, she knew he was right.

**I can only request that you try, **the pokemon said, its red eyes seeming to look straight into Jessie's soul. **Because if the change does not occur… the storms will continue to worsen until the world is no more.**

"The storms…" Jessie said.

"Like the ones in Mahogany Town!" James gasped.

**Yes,** confirmed the pokemon, nodding its enormous head. **Soon, they will be everywhere, ravaging cities in every region.**

"I don't like the sound of that," Jessie said to James anxiously.

**Think about it, **the pokemon said, beginning to turn away from them. **Look to the East… you will find your answer there.**

The pokemon pushed up from its powerful haunches into an impressive leap before taking off running at a lightning-fast speed.

"Wait!" James yelled, but to no avail; the pokemon was gone. "What does that mean?"

…


	4. 03

****Author's Note:

This chapter is kind of crazy. I might have overdone it a bit, but I was having so much fun (XD). However, it does have some substance, particularly in the last portion of the chapter. In Chapter 4, Jessie and James's story takes a different turn, so just bear with me until then.

Btw... if you think this chapter is over the top... TELL ME! Leave a REVIEW. As it is now, I'm doing a lot of guesswork. Thanks, **Farla **and **StarWriterWG**, for your reviews.

Until Monday...

~TheFrogFromHell

**03**

The rest of Jessie and James's journey proved to be uneventful, other than their impassioned conversation regarding the legendary pokemon they'd met. The guard at the city's entrance happily allowed them to enter, and soon they found themselves in the small, old-fashioned city of Ecruteak.

Immediately visible on the left was the infamous Burned Tower, which loomed ominously over Jessie and James. The tall wooden building's infrastructure appeared nearly normal, except for the roof and topmost floors, which had almost completely disintegrated during the fire 150 years ago.

The last rays of the sun were gone now, and nighttime had arrived. _It must be almost show time, _James knew, _we've got to find the theater or we'll miss it!_

"Look there!" Jessie said, pointing ahead to a fairly large building. It was not quite as imposing as the huge burned tower, but it was taller than most of the other structures around it. As the two got closer, they could make out a sign out front that read, "Kimono Dance Theater".

Outside, there was a long line of people chattering excitedly. As Jessie and James approached, they could make out what some of them were saying.

"This should be great," said a slender, dark haired woman to her companion, who James guessed was her husband. "Not only does the Magic Cat perform tricks, but I've heard he can talk, just like a human!"

The man snorted. "I'll believe that when I see it," he replied skeptically.

_Better believe it, _James thought, smiling. Now that he thought of it, Meowth _was _the only talking pokemon he'd ever met (besides the legendary pokemon they'd seen earlier, of course), but when they'd worked for Team Rocket together, James had always taken that for granted.

Jessie and James took their place in the back of the line just as the theater doors opened, and the line began moving forward. _Uh-oh, _James thought when he saw a sign he hadn't noticed until now.

"TICKETS: $20 in advance, $25 at the door."

"Twenty-five dollars?" Jessie exclaimed incredulously, "where are we going to come up with that kind of money?"

"Uh… let's see…" James said, fumbling around in his pockets for any loose change and hoping that, miraculously, he would find a spare twenty somewhere.

Instead, he pulled out $0.63 in change, two crumpled dollar bills, and an expired coupon for a pokemon haircut at a shop in Goldenrod City's underground.

"James, that's not enough!" Jessie shouted as they reached the front of the line.

_As if I didn't know that, _James thought, a little perturbed, but he didn't say anything.

"Welcome," said the woman at the ticket booth, smiling pleasantly, "do you have pre-purchased tickets with us?"

"Uh… no," James answered lamely.

"Then, that will be twenty-five dollars, please," chirped the woman.

"We can do an I-owe-you, right?" said Jessie, grinning and looking at her hopefully.

The woman appeared taken aback. "Umm… sorry, but no. I can't let anyone in without paying. I could lose my job."

"You can't make an exception for two loyal, devoted fans?" Jessie snarled, abruptly changing from friendly to ferocious.

"Jessie…" James said concernedly, hooking his arm around hers to pull her away.

The woman at the booth frowned. "Sorry, but I said 'no'. Either pay the twenty-five dollars or leave, but if you keep pestering me I'm going to have to call security," she remarked sternly.

Jessie opened her mouth to retaliate, but James quickly yanked her away from the booth, heading away from the line.

"That… that… old hag!" Jessie exclaimed furiously, "I was nothing but polite to her, and that's how she treats us!"

"Uh-huh," James said absentmindedly, tuning her out.

They stopped walking, and Jessie sighed dejectedly, folding her arms. "Now we're never going to see Meowth," she pouted.

"Jessie," James said, the corners of his mouth turning up into a mischievous grin, "I have an idea!"

"Wonderful," Jessie replied unenthusiastically, "and what's that?"

"I think it's time to do what we do best," James suggested.

"You mean…" Jessie said, brightening a little.

James nodded. "Disguise," he finished.

…

Fifteen minutes later, Jessie and James, now expertly disguised in black suits, capes, and tall rimmed hats, reappeared in front of the theater, each holding a magic wand.

"Do you think she'll buy it?" whispered James to Jessie.

"Most definitely," Jessie replied, already speaking in a dramatic, exaggerated accent. "Our costumes look absolutely enchanting!"

"Even after all these years, we've still got a few tricks up our sleeves!"

As the last of the people in line filed into the theater, Jessie instructed James, "Now!"

The two sprinted up to the woman at the booth, both huffing and puffing as if out of breath.

"We're _so _sorry we're late," Jessie apologized histrionically, "but I thought I'd lost my magic wand, and we had to spend time looking for it!"

"It turned out I swallowed it instead of my sword," James explained, "my mistake!"

The woman looked at them strangely, scratching her head. "Uh-huh," she said, "and… who are you?"

"You mean you don't know?" Jessie gasped as if offended. "I am Jessalini the Great, and this is my partner, Professor James Trix, and we are The Magic Cat's trusted assistants!"

They struck a theatrical pose for the woman, who frowned.

"I don't remember The Magic Cat saying anything about having assistants…"

"Oh, he was probably just distracted, getting ready for the show," James interrupted, waving his gloved hand nonchalantly. "It takes a lot of hard work and preparation to perform magic, as we know all too well."

The woman still did not look entirely convinced, and Jessie said,

"How about this— we'll show you a trick, free of charge!"

"Um…" the ticket lady said, fidgeting uncomfortably, "okay."

James whipped out a deck of cards, fanned them out, and presented them to the woman.

"Pick a card, any card," he instructed, and the woman obliged.

"Okay," she said tiredly, "now what?"

"Remember which card it is, and put it back in the deck!"

Again, the woman complied, and James shuffled the cards. Then, taking one off the top of the deck and holding it up, he asked her, "Is this your card?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "No," she replied dryly.

"Uh-oh," James cried, "we're onstage in five minutes, and we have a defective deck! There must be a card missing!"

"Oh no, Professor Trix, what can we do?" Jessie exclaimed.

"I know," James said, turning back to the ticket lady. "Can you look through this deck and make sure all the cards are there?" he handed the deck to the woman, who rolled her eyes, but began sifting through the cards one by one.

"Ace… Two… Three… HEY!"

She looked up to see the door of the amphitheater swinging open, and Jessalini the Great and Professor Trix disappeared.

…

Jessie and James erupted into uncontrollable giggles as they entered the theater.

"We've still got it!" James announced proudly.

"Shhh!" shushed an audience member nearby, "The Magic Cat's about to come on!"

"'Shhh' yourself!" Jessie retaliated irritably, "we've known The Magic Cat for much longer than you!"

"Uh-oh, Jessie," James said, ignoring her outburst once again and noticing something concerning. "There aren't any empty seats— it's sold out!"

"We'll just have to stand, then," Jessie stated decisively, "we didn't come all this way for nothing!"

Just then, three colorful dancing lights appeared, highlighting the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen," spoke a deep, booming announcer's voice, "boys and girls, the Ecruteak Theater is delighted to present the amazing, the incredible, the dazzling… Astonishing Magic Cat!"

The crowd erupted into applause as the dark outline of a feline form appeared onstage, accompanied by building, dramatic music. The three multicolored lights stopped behind the pokemon, creating a stark contrast between a bright, vivid background and a dark silhouette. Two fog machines on either side of the stage produced billows of artificial smoke, making it appear as if Meowth was floating on vibrant clouds.

"Wow," James whispered, "they really went all out with this show!" Jessie nodded in agreement.

Abruptly, the music, lights, and smoke disappeared, leaving only a plain, yellow spotlight focused on Meowth, who wore a mini, black bowtie around his neck. The crowd went silent.

"What?" Meowth stated matter-of-factly, "were you expecting somebody taller?"

The audience members, including Jessie and James, laughed and applauded. The whispers of mystified people could be heard throughout the amphitheater. _They must be amazed that Meowth can speak, _thought James.

A large, rather funny looking man whose head reminded James of an egg, sat in the front row gaping. This man, James had noticed, had not shut his mouth since Meowth had first appeared onstage. Meowth casually strutted to the front of the stage, kneeled down to get closer to the man, and said, "What's wrong, buddy? Never seen a talking pokemon before?"

There was more laughter, and Egg-man just stuttered, "I… duh… uh…"

Meowth cocked his head to the side inquisitively and asked, "Cat got your tongue?"

Jessie and James looked at each other and laughed hysterically. Meowth used to say things like that all the time when the three of them had worked together, but James had never realized he was so funny before!

"Alright, folks," Meowth said, standing up, and, looking a little more serious, he said, "so I bet yous didn't come here for talk… yous came here to see some magic, am I right?"

Choruses of "yes!" and "uh-huh!" could be heard all around the theater.

Meowth lifted his arms dramatically, as if he was about to perform a magic trick, when he was overcome with a violent coughing fit. Jessie and James glanced at each other, slightly concerned about the intensity of his hacking. Then, he cleared his throat, coughed once more, and spit something into his paw. "Sorry. Hairball," he stated. But then, he opened his paw to reveal something— a small, shiny ball that appeared to be made of real gold!

"Well, would you look at that," Meowth remarked, as if in wonder himself, "I knew there was something causing my indigestion!"

The crowd laughed and applauded, but Meowth didn't take his bow just yet. Instead, he hurled the golden ball into the air, and everyone gasped as the gleaming orb opened with a crack and a flash of white light…

Suddenly, a whole flock of murkrow appeared, flying out above the audience. Evidently, they had all been inside the golden ball!

The crowd ooo'ed and ahhh'ed before erupting into thunderous applause. Meowth finally held his arms up and took a bow, obviously enjoying the audience's attention.

"That was incredible," James commented to Jessie.

"Yeah," she agreed, "who would've thought?"

Then, James heard the voices of people behind them, and they didn't sound like those of cheering audience members.

"There they are!" said an angry female voice in a half-yell, half-whisper. Jessie and James whirled around to see the ticket lady from earlier, now accompanied by two security guards. "Those are those fake magicians that tricked me! Get them!"

"James, I think it's time we…" started Jessie.

"…disappeared!" finished James, and the two took off running in the opposite direction of the guards, who chased them.

They ran out through a double door into a long hallway. Hearing the footsteps of the guards close behind them, James whispered to Jessie, "Quick! In here!"

They darted through a door with a sign above it that read, "BACKSTAGE ENTRANCE: PERFORMERS AND TECH STAFF ONLY!"

As quietly as they could, Jessie and James tiptoed on the black floor, weaving in and out of curtains as they did so.

"Do you think we lost them?" Jessie asked, and James listened carefully, but he didn't hear the guards anymore.

Just when he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a voice close by called out, "I see them! They're backstage!"

"Run!" Jessie yelled, "this way!" She made a beeline for a space in between two black curtains.

"Jessie, I don't know if that's…" James began, following her anxiously.

Before he could finish his thought, the duo found themselves onstage, face to face with Meowth, under the hot, bright lights.

The cat pokemon appeared completely shocked, staring at them wide-eyed.

_Uh-oh, _James thought, _this could be bad._ The expression on Jessie's face told James that she was feeling exactly the same way.

Hot on their tail, the security guards quickly appeared onstage as well.

"We're so sorry, Magic Cat," one of them said. James raised an eyebrow. These two huge, intimidating men answered to _Meowth_!

"Yes, we'll take care of these two right away!" affirmed the other.

"No, no, no," Meowth contradicted with a wave of his paw. "These are my assistants, err…"

Jessie quickly took the microphone and announced, "Um… Jessalini the Great!"

She handed the mic to James, and he added, "And Professor James Trix!"

Taking the microphone again, Meowth said, "Everyone, let's give them a big round of applause!"

The crowd did just that, welcoming Jessie and James to the stage. The security guards looked at each other as if puzzled, shrugged, and walked offstage.

Meowth winked at Jessie and James before turning to the audience and announcing, "For my next trick, I'm going to need a volunteer."

Many hands shot up at the opportunity, but Meowth ultimately selected a young girl with pigtails, seated in the front row.

Meowth instructed Jessie and James to help the girl up onto the stage, and they obliged, just happy not to have been kicked out of the theater. It was great to work with Meowth again, though it still seemed odd to James that the pokemon was now calling the shots.

The young girl stood in the center of the stage with Jessie and James, appearing a bit intimidated and watching Meowth intently.

"Now," Meowth said to the audience, "you've seen pokemon caught. You've seen pokemon evolve. But I bet you've never seen a person turn into a pokemon— am I right?"

The crowd responded with enthusiastic affirmation.

Addressing the girl, Meowth asked, "What is your name?"

"Macy," the girl responded shyly, peering at Meowth with wide brown eyes.

"Macy," Meowth repeated. "And what is your favorite pokemon, Macy?"

"Umm… Chansey," she answered nervously.

"Chansey… hmm, that's a tricky one," Meowth replied. "But not too tricky for The Astonishing Magic Cat!"

"Is he really going to turn that girl into a pokemon?" James asked Jessie quietly.

"I don't know," she answered, "I guess we'll just have to watch and find out."

"Macy, I promise nothing bad will happen to you," Meowth reassured the girl, who nodded. "You'll leave the stage exactly the same as you are now!"

"Okay," the girl agreed.

This time, Meowth simply flicked his wrist, and another golden orb like the one from earlier appeared in his paw.

"This is a special, magical pokeball," he explained to the audience. To Macy, he said, "in order to turn you into a chansey, I have to capture you first."

"Will it hurt?" the girl questioned uneasily.

"No way, kid!" Meowth replied, "it'll be nice and comfy! Take my word for it— I've been there!"

The audience laughed again.

"Alright, here goes," Meowth declared, "pokeball… go!"

There was another flash of white light, and everyone gasped, including Jessie and James. However, when the light faded, James could see that Macy was, indeed, still standing onstage, outside of the pokeball. A thick, dark panel had risen up from the floor, concealing her from the audience. _That's clever, _observed James.

The orb twitched on the floor for a few seconds as if it held a restless pokemon before standing still, signifying that the pokemon was caught. Meowth walked over and retrieved the ball, holding it out to the audience for a moment.

"Alright, the crowd is getting antsy," Meowth recited, holding the golden pokeball close to his mouth as if speaking to it, "turn this human into a chansey!"

He threw the golden ball, and, to James's amazement, when it opened, a real chansey appeared at the front of the stage. The audience applauded wildly, and Meowth took another bow.

"Thank you," he said graciously. Walking over to the chansey, Meowth questioned, "How are you feeling, Macy?"

"Chans! Chans, sey!" the pokemon replied enthusiastically.

"I think it said… nice and comfy!" Meowth interpreted. Being human, and unable to understand pokemon speech, Jessie, James, and the crowd had to take his word for it.

"Okay, Macy," Meowth said, "are you ready to go back to being a human?"

The chansey nodded its head. "Chans," it affirmed.

"Okay," Meowth replied, "Macy, return!"

The chansey transformed into a beam of red light as it was recalled to its pokeball.

Behind the dark panel onstage, the real Macy giggled, and James smiled at her. "Don't tell anyone how he did it," James whispered to her, and she nodded that she understood.

"Macy and I, we made a pact," Meowth said as if speaking to the pokeball again, "so now it's time to change her back!"

He threw the golden pokeball, and there was another flash of white light that lasted just long enough for the wall in front of Macy to retreat back into the floor. Had James not noticed the wall, the trick would have looked completely authentic; Macy reappeared so suddenly that it truly seemed she had come out of the pokeball.

This time, the crowd gave Meowth a standing ovation as they applauded wildly. Meowth, Macy, Jessie, and James all bowed together, and then Jessie escorted Macy back offstage.

After that, Meowth performed several more tricks, each even more impressive than the last. Sometimes, James was able to determine how the trick was performed, but most of the time Meowth astounded even him. Jessie and James helped out in any way that they could, but, having no idea what was going on most of the time, they weren't able to do all that much.

Finally, Meowth walked all the way to the front of the stage and announced, "It's been fun, folks, but we've reached the end of the show."

James heard a few disappointed "awww"s in the crowd, but most people were still captivated by Meowth, probably wondering what he was going to do for his grand finale. _His tricks have been so amazing the whole show, _James pondered, _what could he possibly do to top them?_

"This is the grand finale," Meowth declared to the eager audience, who sat on the edges of their seats, "and we're going to finish with a bang!"

Meowth flicked both of his wrists, and two silver orbs appeared in each of his paws. Meowth hurled the orbs into the air, juggling the four of them effortlessly. To the amazement of Jessie, James, and the audience, he began to move as he juggled— performing graceful turns and flips, passing the balls around to each one of his four paws, and even catching some of them with his tail.

One by one, more silver orbs began to appear, until Meowth had up to eight of them in the air at a time. The intricacy of his juggling routine was dizzying, and Jessie and James watched him closely, mesmerized.

Suddenly, James heard a familiar noise somewhere in the background.

"What's that, Jessie?" he asked distractedly.

"Probably nothing," she answered, still fixated on Meowth's juggling.

James forced himself to avert his gaze from the poke-magician, surveying the theater for the source of the sound.

He quickly realized what it had been— a pokeball opening.

"Jessie…" he uttered nervously, "look…"

"Stop distracting me, James, I'm trying to watch the show!"

Meowth, oblivious, finally threw all eight balls high into the air…

Just as Jessie's pokemon announced cheerfully to the audience, "Waaaaahhhh-buffet!"

She and James watched the front of the stage in horror as Meowth's silver orbs detonated into eight brilliant, powerful fireworks.

"Wobbuffet… NO!" shrieked Jessie, but it was too late; the pokemon, startled by the fireworks, used Mirror Coat to protect itself.

The fireworks ricocheted off Wobbuffet's glowing body, bouncing backwards at full force towards Jessie, James, and Meowth.

They screamed as the force of the blow lifted them off the ground, propelling them towards the curtains behind them.

"Looks like we're blasting off again!" they yelled, the situation all too familiar. However, this time, their signature line was met with cheers and thunderous applause (though, undoubtedly, some of the audience members were scratching their heads in confusion).

…

Clair, Lance, and Pryce, now safe and warm indoors, clutched their mugs of hot cocoa (or, in Pryce's case, tea) and kept their eyes glued to a small TV displaying the evening news.

"As predicted," a dark-haired, blandly pretty female newscaster informed them, "the blizzard is raging in the eastern region of Johto, with Mahogany Town and its surrounding routes the most severely affected."

Clair gasped when she saw the footage of the storm. The screen was so snowy that it almost looked like the channel wasn't coming in properly, and the shrill howling of the wind was piercing. The caption onscreen read "5 miles outside Mahogany Town", so she didn't even want to think about the damage that was surely being done at Pryce's house.

"And that's not even the worst of it," the newscaster continued. "The storms are predicted to continue, as a new cold front is moving westward toward central Johto."

"I don't like the sound of that," Lance remarked, his facial expression as dark and ominous as the storm clouds themselves.

"I have resided in Mahogany for thirty years," Pryce said quietly, shaking his head remorsefully, "and never have I seen such a storm as harsh as this. It is as if it has been sent here to test our endurance."

_I'm not so sure about that, _Clair thought, _but this certainly is strange weather. I haven't seen the sun in well over a month, and it's September!_

"You're right," came a voice from across the long, wooden table that Clair, Lance, and Pryce were sitting at. Clair looked away from the TV screen and laid eyes on a man wearing a brown, weathered top hat and a tarnished leather coat. Though he wasn't what Clair would consider old, the lines on his face suggested that he'd experienced much in his lifetime, and not all of it pleasant.

"Huh?" Clair asked, gazing at him inquisitively.

"Your friend is right," the man clarified as a ghost of a smile crept onto his face. "We are being tested."

"Tested by whom?" Lance questioned, joining the conversation.

"Well, I can't be certain," the man answered, glancing down at something he was holding in his hands. His fingers mostly blocked Clair's view of it, but she thought she saw the gleam of something metallic behind them. "But I have my suspicions that a legendary pokemon is responsible for the storms."

"Really," Lance said, pausing for a moment as if considering the man's words. "You truly believe that a pokemon— any pokemon— could be powerful enough to cause a blizzard this catastrophic?"

The man met Lance's gaze and held it for a period, almost as if accepting a challenge. Then, he inquired animatedly, "You are a dragon master, are you not?"

Lance nodded.

"Then you know the immense power that can reside within pokemon," the man said. "I believe that, given the proper circumstances… that power could tip the scale of the universe. Alter its fabric, if you will."

Again, Lance nodded respectfully in acknowledgement of the man's comment, but Clair could tell he was skeptical.

Clair, however, was intrigued. Usually she embraced the practical, only accepting what she saw with her own two eyes, but something about this man made her curious.

"If it was a pokemon causing all this turmoil," she speculated, "hypothetically… what could we do about it? How could we stop the storms from getting even worse?"

"That I don't know," the man admitted, "but I do know that it would take an extremely gifted, powerful trainer to address such a problem. Legendary pokemon are said to only reveal themselves to those who are worthy. And reasoning with a legendary… well, that would be a near impossible task." Looking down at the thing he held in his hand once more, the man remarked, "A task too much for me to handle."

Slowly, as if he was reluctant to do so, the man opened his fingers, revealing a flat, shiny object that resembled a feather.

"Do you know what this is?" the man asked.

_It looks familiar, _Clair thought, studying the object, _but where have I seen it before?_

"A Silver Wing," Pryce answered for her. "Don't you remember, Clair? I used to tell you stories of Lugia, the legendary pokemon with the silver wings, when you were just a child."

"That's right," Clair recalled. Price _had_ shown her a picture of the Silver Wing before, perhaps in a storybook. "But I thought those were just stories. I didn't think it was a real pokemon!"

Lance sat silently, as if unsure what to make of all this information.

"Lugia has been called the keeper of storms," the man in the hat said, still gazing at the Silver Wing contemplatively. "The weather we're seeing now could be a sign that it is… unsettled."

The small group stopped talking then; Clair supposed that each one of them was lost in his or her own thoughts. Somehow, the voice of the newscaster that Clair had found so engaging just a few minutes ago now sounded like useless noise. She took one more sip of her now tepid hot chocolate before setting the cup down delicately on the table. _His explanation is a little far-fetched, _Clair admitted to herself, _but how else could the storms be explained? Is there any other probable cause?_

The man in the hat cleared his throat, straightened his jacket, and stood up, pushing his chair in and walking over to Clair.

"Why don't you take this," he said, and, to Clair's shock, he handed her the Silver Wing. In her hand, it felt lighter than she would have expected, and up close she could see all of its fine detail. It truly was as intricate and complex as a real feather.

"I couldn't," Clair objected, attempting to hand it back, but the man refused to take it.

"I'm giving it to you," he insisted. "I know it will be of more use in your hands than mine."

Clair didn't know about that, but she accepted it and thanked him sincerely.

The man turned away from her for a moment, but then, as if in an afterthought, he reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card, which he also handed to Clair.

"Here's my number, if you ever need anything else," the man explained. "I'm feeling too cooped up in here… It's about time I left."

"Where are you going to?" Clair asked him, realizing after she said it that she probably sounded a little nosy.

The man sighed— a little testily, Clair noticed— and replied, "I have some unfinished business in Goldenrod City to attend to."

He gave a farewell nod before making his way across the safe house and out the door.

Clair held up the card, which was quite stylized and professional-looking, in her opinion, and found that it read,

**Ken Jacoby**

**Director**

**Goldenrod City Radio Tower **


	5. 04

**04**

After a clumsy and painful landing backstage, Meowth, who seemed a bit perturbed at Jessie and James for "enhancing" the ending of his show, led the duo to his dressing room. The room was reasonably sized, with a large mirror immediately visible upon entering, and many cards, bouquets, and trinkets (gifts from Meowth's many fans, Jessie presumed) strewn around the room. On the left was a tall, rectangular dresser so stuffed full of brightly colored costumes that its doors wouldn't quite close properly. At first, Jessie figured it was Meowth's, but then she considered that it might belong to Ecruteak's Kimono Girls, as Meowth had only borrowed their theater for the weekend.

"Well, you two haven't changed at all," Meowth said a little bitingly as James closed the dressing room door behind them.

The two looked at each other a little sheepishly. _This _is_ a tad embarrassing, _Jessie admitted. _Wobbuffet always has to come out at the worst times!_ She frowned for a moment and wondered, _Where is Wobbuffet, anyway?_

Meowth took a breath, shrugged, and joked, "But I'm gettin' paid whether my finale is grand or not. And besides, I'd already known that associating with you two for so many years would come back to bite me in the tail one day."

"Thanks for covering for us, Meowth," James said graciously. "We just wanted to see your show, but we had some difficulties getting in. The ticket prices were a bit steep…"

"…And the woman at the booth was so rude," Jessie recalled bitterly.

Meowth held up a paw. "Say no more," he said, chuckling a little to himself. Jessie realized that Meowth, knowing them so well, probably already had a pretty good idea of what had occurred at the ticket booth.

"So," Meowth inquired, "how's Violet City been treating you?"

Jessie and James exchanged awkward glances. The last time they'd spoken to Meowth had been at least two years ago, and they'd gone through many a temporary home since then.

"Well, um…" Jessie began.

"That didn't really…" James continued.

"Work out," Jessie finished.

Meowth crossed his arms and eyed them curiously.

"Our plans for working at the Ruins of Alph were ruined," James explained.

"Although, the reason is unknown," Jessie added.

"Uh-huh," Meowth acknowledged. "So… you left Violet City. What have you been doing since then?"

The duo sighed exasperatedly.

"Well… odds and ends, really; here and there," James replied.

"We lived in a quaint little sea cottage in Cianwood for a while, then Azalea for a few months…"

"And then Jessie held a job at that flower shop in Goldenrod for a while…"

"Don't even bring the flower shop into this, James," Jessie warned him.

"Anyway, now we're living in Ecruteak City," James concluded brightly. Then, his face fell as he added, "For a few more days, anyway."

Meowth looked to the floor, shaking his head as if pitying them. "I was right," he commented. "You two haven't changed _at all!_"

It was true; Meowth's transformation over the years from Team Rocket lackey to famous magician was much more impressive than Jessie's and James's decidedly unproductive endeavors. When the trio had defected from Team Rocket (which was quite a few years ago, now— most employees that worked for Giovanni presently didn't even remember when the organization was still called "Team Rocket", as it was now widely known as "Rocket, Incorporated"), Meowth had stood by Jessie and James initially. However, after many embarrassing failed attempts at establishing a stable working life, Meowth had tired of the situation and had left to pursue his dream of performing onstage.

Jessie suddenly remembered something. _We were so caught up in the excitement of the show that we forgot all about what happened on the trip here!_ she realized.

"Meowth," Jessie exclaimed eagerly, "James and I have something incredible to tell you! On our way to Ecruteak tonight, we saw what we think was a legendary pokemon!"

Meowth's pointy ears perked up at that comment. "Really?" he questioned, intrigued. "What kind of pokemon was it?"

"Well," James answered, "we don't know exactly, but it was yellow and black, with sharp fangs and claws, and it was HUGE!" he held his arms out wide as if to demonstrate exactly how massive the pokemon had been.

Meowth nodded, encouraging them to continue.

"But the strangest part was, it _talked_!" Jessie exclaimed.

Meowth shrugged. "Well, stranger things have happened," he remarked, looking a little offended.

"No, Meowth, I mean… it talked _in our minds_. Like ESP!"

"And that's not all," James elaborated. "It told us the end of the world is coming!"

Meowth looked unconvinced. "That sounds a little nuts," he said.

Suddenly, the three jumped in surprise as they heard a knock on the door behind them.

Jessie and James straightened up, preparing to reprise their roles as Jessalini the Great and Professor James Trix.

"Come in," Meowth called out, and the door opened slowly.

The first thing Jessie noticed was Wobbuffet, who excitedly ran towards Jessie with a smile on its blue face. She rolled her eyes but greeted it kindly. _You may be annoying, _Jessie thought, _but I'm glad you're not lost._ Relieved, she returned it to its pokeball.

Then, she looked up to see an unfamiliar man step through the door. He was attractively tall and thin, with slicked-back, dirty-blond hair, and he was clothed in a fitted, royal-purple suit. _It looks like _he_ should have been the one posing as Meowth's assistant, _Jessie observed.

"Excellent performance, Mr. Cat," the man gushed, kneeling down to shake Meowth's paw.

"Thanks, Eusine," Meowth replied, grinning. Turning to Jessie and James, he explained, "This is Eusine; he helped arrange for me to perform at this theater."

Eusine stood up, smiling welcomingly at the duo. "And to whom do I owe the pleasure?" he inquired.

Jessie cleared her throat and attempted to look offended. "You mean, you've never heard of Jessali—"

"These are Jessie and James, two of my old friends," Meowth interrupted, and Jessie inferred that the "magician's assistant" act was no longer necessary.

"Well, it's wonderful to meet you, Jessie and James," Eusine said, bowing to them.

"Err… the pleasure's all ours," James replied awkwardly.

"Thanks for bringing Wobbuffet back," Jessie added, and Eusine smiled.

"It was no trouble at all," he assured her.

Abruptly, Eusine straightened up, appearing a bit more serious and businesslike.

"As much as I would love to chat about the merits of your incredible performance all night, Mr. Cat," Eusine began, "I have a serious matter I need to discuss with you."

"Really," Meowth said, appearing confused as to what it could be. He looked at Jessie and James, then back at Eusine and asked, "You mean… a _private_ serious matter?"

"Oh, no, no, no," Eusine responded with a wave of his hand, on which he was wearing a white glove. _Why is it that magical people always wear gloves? _Jessie wondered. _Maybe it's to protect their fingers from rabbit bites when they reach into their hats._

"In fact," Eusine continued, "this involves Jessie and James even more so than you, Mr. Cat."

Jessie and James exchanged looks. _That's odd, _Jessie thought. _W__e just met him!_

Eusine sighed. "As I approached this dressing room, hoping to return Wobbuffet to its owner, I couldn't help but overhear the last portion of your conversation."

"That's embarrassing," Jessie remarked, thinking of James's comment regarding the flower shop.

"No, no— I meant the part about the legendary pokemon," Eusine clarified. "I heard your description of it, and I believe I have an idea of what kind of pokemon it might have been."

"Really?" Jessie inquired, curious. "Have you seen that pokemon before, too?"

Eusine shook his head disappointedly. "No," he admitted, "but I am a follower, and an avid researcher, of legendary pokemon. I have tracked these legends— particularly, the legendary beasts— for years. Based on your description, I am almost certain that the pokemon you met was Raikou, Bringer of Thunder."

"Raikou," James repeated, "wow." Of course, neither Jessie nor James had any idea what a Raikou was, but having someone agree that they had seen a legendary pokemon seemed unbelievable.

Eusine frowned, looking unsettled. "What worries me," he continued, "is that the pokemon spoke of the end of the world. Never, to my knowledge, has a legendary pokemon led humans astray… Raikou's words must have great significance."

Jessie and James gulped.

"So… you mean the end of the world really is coming?" Meowth asked, the inflection of disbelief in his voice now replaced with alarm.

Rather than answering, Eusine asked Jessie and James another question. "What exactly did Raikou say?"

"Well," mused Jessie, thinking back to the details of the conversation, "it said that the world was… out of balance, or something, and that it would take a human to change it. Also, it mentioned that everything had something to do with the storms happening in Mahogany Town."

"And 'the East'," James added. "It said, 'you will find your answer in The East'."

"Fascinating," Eusine remarked, and then it was as if a light switched on in his mind. "To the East… why, Tin Tower lies to the East!"

"_Tin_ Tower?" Jessie questioned. She had only ever heard of Ecruteak's Burned Tower, since it was somewhat of an urban legend.

"Tin Tower," Eusine repeated, nodding. "It is said to be the roosting place of the fiery pokemon, Ho-Oh, who, according to legend, is the guardian of the three legendary beasts."

"And… you think that Ho-Oh has all the answers?" James inquired.

"I believe so," Eusine confirmed.

"The end of the world… that's not something I want to see in my nine lives," Meowth said, swallowing. "How do we find this Ho-Oh?"

_We? _Jessie questioned mentally. _As in, James, Meowth, and I are a trio again?_

"The pokemon is said to only appear to worthy trainers in possession of a Rainbow Wing," Eusine explained. Jessie and James slumped. _All we're worthy of is $2.63 and a coupon for a haircut, _Jessie thought glumly.

"Don't give up hope just yet," Eusine reassured them. "After all, Raikou did reveal itself to you. Perhaps that is a sign that Ho-Oh will find you worthy as well."

Jessie and James brightened a little at Eusine's words, but there was still something that bothered Jessie. "Raikou said that a human created this problem, and that it would take a human to fix it," she stated, and Eusine nodded. "So… why would another pokemon be the answer?"

Eusine gazed at Jessie, and she noticed that his crystal-blue eyes were so pale and clear that they almost looked unreal.

"The ways of the legendary pokemon are complex and shrouded in mystery," he said in a near-whisper. "Humans and pokemon are bound together in ways we can never fully understand. However, I am almost certain that Raikou must have been referring to Ho-Oh's roosting place, in the East."

Jessie was inclined to believe him, but the way he'd evaded her question wasn't entirely comforting.

"There's one more thing," James interjected. "What about the Rainbow Wing?"

"That won't be a problem," Eusine dismissed, "I have owned a Rainbow Wing since I was a small child, and I'd be delighted to lend it to you for your quest… on one condition."

Jessie, James, and Meowth watched him expectantly, curious as to what that condition could be.

"I've always desired to meet a legendary pokemon," Eusine confessed, "and I'd like to accompany you on your journey to the Tin Tower."

"Oh… well, that's okay," James responded, glancing at Jessie, who confirmed James's words with a nod.

"I'm coming too," Meowth declared. As an afterthought, he tacked on, "If that's alright."

"Sure," Jessie agreed, a little dumbfounded that both Meowth and Eusine would be interested in traveling with her and James.

"When can we go?" James asked.

"The legends tell us that Ho-Oh explores the skies by day, searching for trainers with pure hearts," Eusine answered.

"That's really encouraging," James murmured sarcastically to Jessie under his breath.

"But by night," he continued, "the pokemon returns to its nest at the top of Tin Tower."

"At night," Jessie repeated, "you mean, like tonight?"

"Not tonight," Eusine responded, shaking his head. "It will take several days of preparation before we are ready to summon Ho-Oh."

"What kind of preparation?" Meowth asked, "Anything we can do to speed it up?"

Eusine paused for a moment as if caught off-guard. "Well…" he began, quickly recovering, "to attract Ho-Oh, we will need a few special herbs along with the Rainbow Wing. I believe most of these can be found growing in the tall grass of nearby routes, but it will take some effort to gather them."

"We can do that," James proposed, "and probably faster than in a few days!"

"Well, once gathered, the herbs will require time for maturation," Eusine said, and James frowned disappointedly.

Jessie looked at James, then back at Meowth and Eusine awkwardly.

"Also… we don't exactly have a place to stay overnight," Jessie confessed.

Meowth appeared confused. "Where were you planning to stay after my show?" he inquired, and Jessie and James just stared at him blankly.

"We're free spirits," Jessie exclaimed brightly. "Spontaneity is our approach to everything!"

"No matter," Eusine said casually. "You two may stay with me. I have a spare room reserved for weary travelers."

"Wow," James said. "Err… that's very kind of you."

"Yes," Jessie agreed, "thank you."

"It is the least I can do," Eusine assured them. Suddenly, he was overcome by an enormous yawn, and, to Jessie and James, he said, "Come to think of it, the hour is late. It is about time I retired for the night. Why don't you accompany me to my home now?"

The duo turned to Meowth for a moment, seeking his approval, and, observing no signs of objection from their old friend, they agreed, "Okay."

"Excellent," Eusine remarked, beaming. "Thanks again for the show, Mr. Cat, and we'll be seeing you," he said to Meowth, bowing to him again before exiting the dressing room with Jessie and James close behind him.

…

Two days passed before it was declared safe to return to Mahogany town and its adjacent routes. As Lance had expected, the fallout from the storm was disastrous; Pryce had insisted on returning to his home (or, rather, what was left of it), but everything but the bare framework had been ripped apart, with pieces of wood and other materials laying strewn across the land.

Pryce had held himself together, but Lance had been able to tell that underneath his stony exterior, he was very distraught, grieving the loss of the home that he'd lived in for thirty years. Clair had graciously invited Pryce to take shelter at her home, and the old gym leader had agreed, though Lance gathered he wasn't too wild about the idea. _Pryce never liked to accept help from anyone, _Lance recalled, _but this time, there is nothing else he can do._

Lance's home in Blackthorn City wasn't far from Clair's, and the cousins had been spending extra time together, attempting to draft up a plan for the coming blizzards. The next storm front was expected to move in in a week's time, and this one was predicted to reach both Newbark Town and Blackthorn City.

While Pryce was outside in Clair's backyard meditating, Lance and Clair sat at Clair's dining room table, discussing their options.

"I guess we'll have to evacuate," Clair conceded reluctantly, "but this is terrible news— with both the Mahogany and Blackthorn gyms out of operation, the Pokemon League Challenge will have to be suspended. Not only will I not have a house to come back to, but I won't have a job, either."

Lance nodded sympathetically. That was the situation that Pryce currently faced as well, and Lance's wouldn't be all that different if Blackthorn was indeed devastated by the storm.

"It is terrible news," Lance agreed, "but Clair, what can we do about it? As much as I hate to admit it, we are completely powerless against these storms. We'll just have to evacuate and assess the damage after it's been done. That's our only option."

"And then what, Lance?" Clair inquired heatedly. "What do we do when the next storm comes? They've been getting worse and worse, and that trend is predicted to continue. If they keep spreading throughout Johto, eventually we'll have no place to evacuate to!"

"I don't know, Clair," Lance replied, shaking his head. "I don't have any answers for you."

"Nobody does," she commented, folding her arms. "Except…" she reached into her pocket and retrieved the Silver Wing that the man in the safe house had given her, holding it delicately and studying it.

Lance sighed. "Clair… you don't really believe that story, do you? That _Lugia_, a pokemon that nobody has ever caught or even _seen_ for certain, is responsible for the weather?"

"I know it sounds a little crazy," Clair acknowledged, "but… we have to explore all the possibilities. Maybe that's why there aren't any answers; nobody's willing to consider that something 'unbelievable' is happening!"

Lance paused to think about her words for a moment. It seemed very strange to him that Clair was suddenly clinging to this storybook legend as if it was fact. However, she was right about one thing: if there was even a tiny possibility that is was true, then that possibility should be explored. _If, hypothetically, Lugia _is _responsible for the blizzards, _Lance allowed himself to consider, _then perhaps calming Lugia would put an end to them. _

"Like that man said, you and I know better than anyone how strong dragon pokemon are," Clair reminded him. "It's not so implausible that there could be something even more powerful than they are, and, if there was, it's completely possible that it could cause a storm like this."

"Yes," Lance retorted sarcastically, "the key word being, _'_if'."

Clair glared at him, slipping the Silver Wing back into her pocket.

"Fine," she said evenly, rising up from her seat. "If you won't believe me, I'll just go search for Lugia myself."

Lance sighed. "No, Clair… wait…"

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning," she announced resolutely before retreating to her bedroom.

_Clair, _Lance thought exasperatedly, _if you'd just waited a moment… I just needed some time to mull it all over and clear my head._

Suddenly, the dining room felt cramped and stuffy, and Lance decided he needed a walk outside.

Taking nothing with him but his pokemon, Lance exited Clair's house and headed towards the Dragon's Den, which he often visited in order to be alone with his thoughts.

_Is Clair really serious about leaving tomorrow? _Lance wondered as he passed by the Blackthorn City gym, now approaching the body of water that separated the city from the entrance to the Den. _If she leaves, I'll be left alone with Pryce. _Lance didn't exactly love that idea; he didn't mind Pryce, of course, but Lance could only handle so much tea and so many "wise words". Also, if Clair left, she would probably ask Lance to assume her duties at the Blackthorn Gym, which Lance wasn't very keen on doing these days. Ever since he'd quit his Elite Four position, Lance constantly had people asking him things like, "why aren't you Champion anymore?" and the worst, "who defeated you?" Lately, Lance had preferred to train in solidarity in the Dragon's Den or up on Mt. Silver, away from cocky trainers with nosy questions. Working in Clair's gym, however, would likely attract them like venomoth to a light.

Lance reached the edge of the water and summoned Gyarados, so that he could surf upon its back to the other side.

The enormous aquatic dragon roared as it was released from its pokeball, thrashing in the water for a moment as if to demonstrate its immense strength before calming down and awaiting Lance's orders.

_A pokemon more powerful than this? _Lance mused, _I'll believe it when I see it._

"Gyarados, use Surf to help me across the water," he instructed, jumping onto his pokemon's back.

The dragon was adept at maneuvering itself in the water, so Lance and Gyarados reached the entrance of the Dragon's Den in no time at all. The outside of the Den resembled a cave, but inside it was quite different; Lance, Clair, and their relatives worked diligently to maintain the Den, keeping it clean and caring for the wild dragons that resided there.

Lance decided to pay his respects to the Dragon Shrine in the heart of the den, so, after they entered, Lance once again surfed on Gyarados's back to the small island where the shrine was located. Since he knew Gyarados would enjoy some time outside its pokeball, Lance decided not to return it, instead allowing it to explore the waters of the Den and perhaps interact with some of the wild dragons.

_I wonder if my great uncle is here, _Lance thought. The elderly Master of the Dragon User Clan often retreated to the Dragon's Den for days at a time in order to meditate and pay his respects.

Lance frowned and suddenly felt a twinge of alarm when he noticed something strange— the shrine's intricately carved, wooden door was hanging slightly ajar.

_That's odd, _Lance thought. M_y great uncle would never leave it like that. _

A little hesitantly, Lance reached for the handle and slowly opened the door.

His heart raced when he laid eyes on the scene inside.

Everywhere he looked, there were signs of a struggle; one of the two brass dragonair statues lay on its side, the curtains on the walls were torn off their rods, and the lamp that held the fire that continuously burned in the Dragon Shrine— Ho-Oh's sacred flame, as the elders told Lance, though he'd always considered that to be mere legend— had tipped over, spilling its ashes and extinguishing the flame.

But what disturbed Lance the most was that his great uncle lay on the floor of the shrine, motionless.

Lance rushed over to his still form, checking for a pulse and finding none. However, he knew that any efforts to revive his great uncle would prove to be useless; judging by the coldness of his skin and the rigidity of his body, Lance had realized the man was dead almost immediately.

Taking in the sight of the ruined Dragon Shrine and the lifeless body of his great uncle once again, Lance was gripped by an intense fury. _I will find who did this, _he vowed, _and make that person sorely regret the decision to harm the Dragon User Clan._


	6. 05

****Author's Note:

****I got all ready to post this chapter last night, then decided that I didn't like a couple of things about it, so I edited it at the last minute. I think it's better than the original now, but feel free to point out any errors or give feedback. I am very receptive to it.

Anyway, thanks **StarWriterWG** for your review, and happy reading.

~TheFrogFromHell

**05**

James was reaching his limit on how much herb gathering he could do in one day. _I hope that Ho-Oh will be happy,_ he thought bitingly as he ripped yet another sprig of Carbunkleweed out of the ground, wincing as the now blistered portions of his hands were irritated once again. He tossed the special plant, which, to him, appeared no different than a common weed, into the nearly full bag he was using for collection. Jessie and James had been collecting plants for three days now, but Eusine had assured them that tonight they would have enough to be able to summon Ho-Oh.

However, judging by the angle of the sun, James knew it was probably getting close to six o'clock, and Eusine had told him that he would come find them before nightfall so that they could leave for Tin Tower.

Eusine, though kind, was a very strange man, as James had discovered while staying with him for the last three days. His house was filled with bizarre items, such as multicolored orbs that resembled crystal balls, and a huge collection of differently shaped bells that decorated his sitting room table. Paintings and sculptures of the legendary pokemon Suicune could be found throughout the house, and much of Eusine's home's color scheme was blue and purple, Suicune's colors. In addition, Eusine seemed to only prepare very unusual food, usually made from unique vegetables and roots that Jessie and James had never heard of. The food wasn't terrible, but the thought of another serving of kohlrabi stew didn't exactly make James's mouth water.

James spotted another sprig of Carbunkleweed on the ground, and his collection bag suddenly seemed enormously heavy in his hand. _This has _got_ to be enough, _he reasoned, lifting the sack up to test its weight. Eyeing the plant on the ground again, he just couldn't bring himself to uproot even one more weed.

Sighing, and slinging the bag over his shoulder, he called out, "Jessie! It's almost sunset; let's go back!"

James's partner, who was crouching in the grass a couple hundred feet away, sprang up from her position and quickly made her way over to James. "Thank goodness," she exclaimed. "My hands have got so many blisters they look like they got stuck by a qwilfish."

"Ditto," James replied sympathetically.

Jessie folded her arms discontentedly. "Where is Eusine, anyway?" she inquired. "Have you even seen him since this morning?"

"No," James answered, feeling more than a little annoyed at their new acquaintance. "Meowth went to go check on him a couple of hours ago and never came back."

Jessie growled in frustration, and James thought she resembled a perturbed houndour.

"Let's get back to the house," she suggested, already beginning to walk in the direction of Ecruteak City, and James followed her.

In a few minutes, they reached Eusine's house and rapped on its sturdy wooden door. Strangely, no one answered, and Jessie and James exchanged concerned looks before turning the brass knob and stepping inside.

Immediately, their ears were filled with the sounds of very loud jazz guitar and mellow male vocals. If the music had been slightly quieter, they might have enjoyed it, but as it was they had to bring their hands to their ears to shield them.

"Eusine?" James shouted at the top of his lungs, but there was no response.

The duo walked through the house slowly, passing through the sitting and dining rooms before reaching Eusine's study, which had its door closed. The music was extra loud here, which told James that the source of it was probably located behind the door.

Without knocking, James and Jessie entered the room and were surprised to see Meowth dancing and singing at the top of his lungs, holding a hairbrush as a makeshift microphone in one paw and gesturing animatedly with the other. He wore a towel around his waist, and his fur was wet as if he'd just taken a bath.

Meowth attempted to perform a complicated turn, but, when he noticed Jessie and James, he startled and tripped over his own paws.

Embarrassedly, he stood up again to switch off the music, which was emanating from an ancient looking record player sitting on Eusine's mahogany desk.

"Hi, guys," Meowth greeted them sheepishly.

"Hi," chorused Jessie and James, uncertain whether to be disturbed or amused by what they had just observed.

"I was practicing for my next show," Meowth explained, though James wondered if he was just making an excuse. "I was thinking of going Sinatra. Then, I'd be a triple threat— magic, music, and comedy!"

"Ah," Jessie replied, apparently at a loss for words, which was very rare for her.

James narrowed his eyes at Meowth. "Did you find Eusine?" he questioned sternly.

Meowth brightened at the question, "Well, I… uh…"

James raised an eyebrow.

"…guess I forgot," Meowth finished guiltily. "I was looking for him, but then I found this old record player in the attic and I got distracted. Then, I was all dirty from all the dust up there so I…" noticing that James and Jessie were completely unresponsive to his explanation, Meowth ended his sentence there.

James looked out the study's window and shook his head regretfully. _Darn it, _he thought. _I__t's already dark out, and Eusine still hasn't returned. That means we'll have to wait another night to go look for Ho-Oh. I'm getting tired of this…_

"Humph," Jessie grunted, placing her hands on her hips. "Who cares if Eusine hasn't come back yet? I say we go try to find Ho-Oh ourselves. After all, _we're_ the worthy trainers— Eusine has never even _seen_ a legendary pokemon!"

"Uh…" Meowth started to say but evidently thought better of it.

Surprisingly, James agreed with Jessie's perspective. "Jessie has a point," he said. "What do we need Eusine for anyway? _We've_ done all the work gathering these herbs, and it was us that Raikou asked to save the world. Also, Eusine's been gone all day with no explanation. What are we waiting for? I say we leave right now!"

Jessie and Meowth appeared taken aback at James's assertiveness. _What?_ James thought, a little offended. _I can't have strong opinions?_

"Well, we do need the Rainbow Wing," Meowth pointed out.

"Oh yeah… I forgot," James acknowledged. That put a damper on his excitement.

"Is that it over there?" Jessie questioned, pointing to a picture frame hanging on the study's wall. James was surprised to see that the frame contained a vivid, rainbow-colored feather pressed against a dark backing.

"Sure looks like it," Meowth confirmed.

Determinedly, James retrieved the frame from the wall, carefully opening the back of it and removing the feather. When he touched the Rainbow Wing, James realized that it wasn't a real feather at all— it was made from some kind of rigid, crystalline material.

"I guess this is all we need," James remarked, handling the item gingerly. The Rainbow Wing was beautiful, actually; when the light hit it just right, it would emit radiant beams of different colors, almost as if it was sparkling.

Meowth and Jessie were apparently fascinated by it as well, as they absentmindedly agreed with James while admiring the Rainbow Wing intently.

James, coming to his senses, declared, "It's getting late. If we're going to try to find Ho-Oh and stop the end of the world from coming, we should do it soon."

"Uh-huh," Jessie and Meowth chorused robotically, still fixated on the Wing, which James quickly slipped into his shirt pocket.

The three exited the house, bringing along their pokemon, their bags of herbs, and the Rainbow Wing. Although he'd never been to the Tin Tower before, James could see the large structure standing in the distance, and it appeared that a smaller, traditionally-styled building close to Eusine's house was the entrance to the path that lead to the tower.

Feeling a little less confident as the trio approached the building, James swallowed. _Maybe we should have waited for Eusine to come back after all, _he considered. _I mean, are the three of us really going to be able to handle a legendary pokemon ourselves?_

As they stepped inside, they were greeted by three sages clothed in long robes.

"Hello, trainers," one of them said kindly, approaching the trio. "What brings you here tonight?"

James was beginning to sweat. "Umm... we were hoping to visit Tin Tower."

"Tin Tower at night, eh?" questioned a second sage lightheartedly, coming to join the first. "Sounds to me as if these trainers are looking to meet Ho-Oh, Koji."

"Is that true?" the first sage, Koji, asked James.

Jessie and Meowth remained silent, and James figured that the sages would probably see through any lie he attempted to fabricate.

"Yes," James conceded.

The third sage approached, standing next to the others authoritatively.

"You do know that only the worthy are permitted passage," he said evenly. "Have you any badges, trainers?"

James gulped and turned to Jessie, who appeared just as anxious as he felt.

"Badges?" Jessie asked, addressing the sage. She giggled nervously. "Well, no. But we do have... erm..."

"Life experience," James finished for her.

"I see," the third sage acknowledged, nodding slowly. "Well, in that case, we must test you, seekers of Ho-Oh!" He retrieved two pokeballs from his belt, enlarging them in preparation for a pokemon battle.

James, Jessie, and Meowth gasped. _I wasn't expecting this,_ James thought fretfully. _What if we lose?_

Suddenly, the front door opened, and Eusine burst inside, huffing and puffing as if out of breath.

"Wait!" he cried. "These are my friends; I told them I would escort them to Tin Tower to search for Ho-Oh."

The sages exchanged glances, and the third sage lowered his pokeballs.

"Well, if you're accompanying them, Eusine, then we will allow you passage," he said. "But be warned - we have sensed that the Fiery Guardian is restless tonight."

"Thank you, Sage Masa," Eusine responded, bowing gratefully. James looked at Jessie and Meowth, who shrugged, and then the three of them followed suit, bowing even lower than Eusine had. Then, with Eusine leading the way, they bypassed the sages and continued their journey to Tin Tower.

Once outside, Meowth, Jessie, and James exchanged nervous looks.

"Err…" Meowth began tentatively to Eusine, "sorry we left without you, buddy, but, uh… the end of the world isn't exactly the time to procrastinate."

"No matter," Eusine replied dismissively as they walked. He was looking away from them distractedly, as if lost in his thoughts, and his lips were turned downward into a tight frown, giving James the impression that he was irritated about something.

"So… you're not angry with us, then?" Jessie questioned.

"No," Eusine answered, though his voice still sounded displeased. "You behaved how I would have expected you to."

The trio breathed sighs of relief.

"Well, since you're here, here's your Rainbow Wing," James said, removing it from his pocket and handing it back to their guide, who accepted it and held it delicately.

"Thank you, James," Eusine replied unenthusiastically. "I certainly hope it proves to be useful tonight."

_What's that supposed to mean? _James wondered.

As the group progressed down the dirt path to Tin Tower, James admired the tower's beauty and exquisite architecture. It was taller than he had expected it to be, and its metallic sheen gleamed in the moonlight. _Burned Tower was probably just as impressive as this one before the fire, _he figured.

At the tower's entrance, the group stopped, and Jessie, James, and Meowth glanced at each other hesitantly.

"Are you ready, Jessie?" James questioned, his wavering voice revealing his apprehension.

"Of course," Jessie huffed, though her nervous tone made her sound less than convincing. "What, are you scared?"

James narrowed his eyes determinedly. "No," he declared. "A legendary pokemon is no match for me! Let's go!" He held up his fist triumphantly.

Once again, Meowth and Jessie stared at him, looking shocked at his announcement.

"What?!" he countered exasperatedly, some of his confidence evaporating.

Eusine, considerably less gently than usual, inquired, "So, are we going to summon Ho-Oh or not?"

James, taken aback for a moment by the man's directness, replied, "Yes. Now that you're here, you can show us where to go."

Eusine said nothing, but he pushed passed them, opening the door to the base floor of Tin Tower and moving aside so that the others could enter.

Inside the tower it was dark, which made James a little uneasy. He had to refrain from shrieking in alarm as he felt something scurry by his feet; though, he felt a little better when he realized that it had only been a wild, low-level rattata.

James found himself breathless as the group climbed staircase after staircase in order to reach the top of the tower. _How many floors _are_ there? _he wondered, gasping for air as Eusine had a few minutes ago.

The higher they climbed, the more illuminated the floors were, and James noticed that beams of moonlight were penetrating the tower through the cracks in its ceiling's rafters. It cast an ethereal glow over the faces of Jessie and Eusine, making them appear as pale as porcelain, and Meowth's feline eyes glowed eerily like lanterns. The group was oddly silent, none of them having spoken a word since entering the tower. James studied Eusine, who was walking next to him. The man still looked just slightly angry about something, which James didn't understand. Somehow, he got the impression that Eusine's mood had nothing to do with the group. _Where _was _he all day today, anyway? _James questioned mentally.

Finally, the group reached a staircase that was far larger than any of the others they'd conquered, and Eusine halted, turning to the group and explaining, "This one leads to the roof. If Ho-Oh comes tonight, it will roost right above this flight of stairs."

"What do you mean _if_?" Jessie inquired testily.

"Although we will do everything we can to attract the Fiery Guardian, ultimately, legendary pokemon do as they please," Eusine replied, the tone of his voice equally as touchy.

_If they get in an argument, we won't need Ho-Oh to make sparks fly,_ James thought. Thankfully, though, the couple's exchange ended there.

"I require the Carbunkleweed," Eusine said, and James handed him his nearly-full bag of the plant. Eusine wordlessly removed a fistful of Carbunkleweed from the sack, tying it together in a bundle with a piece of twine he retrieved from his pocket. He placed the rest of the sack to the side nonchalantly. _You mean _that's_ all we needed? _thought James disbelievingly. _What was the point of weeding for three whole days?_

To the surprise of Jessie, James, and Meowth, Eusine used a lighter to ignite the bundle of herbs. _Some magician, _James thought sarcastically. However, then he remembered that Eusine had never actually confirmed he was a magician; he'd only mentioned his interest in legendary pokemon.

Eusine held the herbs up toward the roof and recited an incantation in a language that James didn't understand. The trio looked at each other skeptically.

"Are pokemon usually attracted to burning herbs?" James overheard Jessie asking Meowth.

"Not that I know of," Meowth answered. Then, after pondering it a moment, he added, "Maybe if it was catnip."

The group stood there, burning herbs and chanting (after the trio memorized Eusine's incantation, they joined in, though James felt a little silly doing so) for quite some time, but James was disappointed to detect no signs of Ho-Oh approaching. Discouraged, James stopped chanting, frowned, and broke away from the group.

One by one, the others stopped as well, until the tower was completely silent except for the hooting of a wild noctowl outside.

"Perhaps Ho-Oh has chosen not to visit the Tin Tower tonight," Eusine remarked dejectedly.

"_What?_" Jessie snarled, "That's ridiculous! It has to show up! We're _worthy_!"

Meowth snorted, and Jessie glared at him.

"I am sorry," Eusine said, "but the behavior of legendary pokemon is not so cut and dry."

"Then cut it and dry it!" Jessie barked. "I didn't work my butt off for three days and come all the way up here just for some bush-burning and group meditation! I swear…"

"Jessie…" James started, hoping she would calm down. It was disappointing that Ho-Oh wasn't there, but Eusine had been kind enough to let them stay in his home, and James didn't think she should be yelling at him like that.

Eusine silently endured Jessie's verbal assault with a dark expression on his face. His icy, crystal-blue eyes flashed as if in warning, making James uneasy.

"This isn't Eusine's fault," James said, attempting to interrupt Jessie's tirade, but she only seemed to be getting angrier and angrier.

"You think you can use us as your slaves, is that it? Well, we are valuable workers, and we will not stand for that! I demand that you pay us the modest amount of ten thousand dollars for our labor…"

James gasped as, through Jessie's heated monologue, he heard a faraway noise that made his heart pound.

"Jessie," James shouted seriously, "_shut up!_"

Shockingly, the redhead complied.

Again, James heard the noise, and this time he thought he knew what it was— the beating of wings. And from the sound of them, they were enormous.

"Is that…" Meowth began.

"Ho-Oh," Eusine confirmed.

James gasped as he felt the strange sensation of the tower moving and heard what sounded like the scraping of claws on the roof. _I think Ho-Oh's come in for a landing, _James conjectured, feeling both excited and frightened simultaneously.

"Climb," Eusine instructed hastily, and the group swiftly began to ascend the staircase, James leading the way and Eusine taking up the rear.

There was a slab cut out of the roof that resembled a small, square door, which James flung open, revealing the star-speckled night sky and bright, full moon. Taking a deep breath, James stepped up onto the roof, followed by Jessie, Meowth, and Eusine.

When James saw the pokemon that stood before them, he could do nothing but gape, wide-eyed and drop-jawed.

Evidently surprised by the visitors, Ho-Oh, who stood over twelve-feet tall, opened its golden beak and cried out, "GA-YOOOO!". It unfurled its impressive wing span, which was a semicircle of shiny, multicolored feathers. A rainbow aura seemed to emanate from the very tips of its wings, splitting the night with a radiant half-halo.

It was the most beautiful thing James had ever seen. _And we thought the Rainbow Wing was exciting,_ he remembered, in awe.

He glanced over at Jessie and Eusine, who appeared to be having the same reaction as him. Meowth, however, looked a bit unsettled.

"Uh, guys," the cat pokemon pointed out nervously, "I hate to ruin your light show, but Ho-Oh's not exactly in the best of moods."

James, coming to his senses, realized that Meowth, being a pokemon, had been able to understand the meaning of Ho-Oh's cry.

James now noticed that the bird was fidgeting as if it was uneasy. It beat its rainbow wings again, dragged its talons on the roof, and broke out into a chorus of discontented screeches and squawks.

"What's its problem?" Jessie questioned James and Meowth under her breath.

"It says it's upset because somebody put out its flame," Meowth translated. The bird incessantly continued its terrible din, causing James to become a little disillusioned with the pokemon. _It looks nice on the outside, but never seems to shut up, _James observed. He frowned as a peculiar thought struck him. _Kind of like Jessie, _he noted.

"Upset?" questioned Eusine, who James had forgotten about. James heard fear in the man's voice, which was unnerving. _When the legendary pokemon expert is afraid, it's time to worry!_

The pokemon squawked again, evidently agitated.

"Uh-oh," Meowth exclaimed anxiously. "Ho-Oh says a human extinguished its flame, and it thinks _you're_ the ones who did it!"

"You've got the wrong humans, Ho-Oh!" James called out to the bird, trembling in terror. "We couldn't extinguish a flame even if we tried!"

"Our schemes always go up in smoke!" Jessie added.

Eusine stood silently, still studying the bird.

Ho-Oh screeched again, and Meowth translated, "It said, 'if you didn't, then who did'?"

Jessie and James looked at each other, then back at Ho-Oh, and said together, "We have no idea!"

The legendary bird beat its wings again in protest, almost knocking everyone over with the force of the wind it generated.

Then, James had an idea. _I hope this works, _he prayed, _because if it doesn't, we're toast!_

"Ho-Oh," James called out, "I swear, we had nothing to do with extinguishing your flame. But maybe we can help find the human who did."

"James, what are you doing?" Jessie whispered to him. "That birdbrain's nuts! You can't reason with it!"

However, contrary to Jessie's words, Ho-Oh had calmed somewhat and appeared to be listening.

James, determined, continued, "But in order to do that we need something from you."

This time, the bird threw its feathered head back and half-screeched, half-cackled, sounding eerily human as it did so.

"It asked, 'what do you dare request of me, human?'" Meowth relayed.

"Information," James answered. "We want you to tell us what you know about Raikou's warning and the end of the world."

Ho-Oh abruptly stopped its cackling, peering at James with its red eyes, which were rimmed with coal-black feathers.

It made its ruckus again, but this time it seemed more focused and direct. During its last, most threatening screech, it lunged towards James, crouching down in order to look him straight in the eyes.

James stood his ground, cringing in terror inside but trying his hardest to stay strong on the outside, as Meowth translated, "It said, 'I will tell you all I know, but you must bring me the human before the start of the storm, or there will be consequences."

"Deal," James declared immediately, and, next to him, Jessie and Meowth exchanged confused glances. "What storm?" Jessie mouthed to Meowth, and he shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either.

Ho-Oh bowed its head and backed off slightly, signaling that it, too, had agreed to the arrangement.

As it communicated in pokemon speech, Meowth translated.

"We legendary pokemon sense a disturbance in the balance of the universe," Meowth said, interpreting Ho-Oh's words. "Something has been changed that was not meant to change."

Eusine gasped. "An… imbalance? The ancient legends have never mentioned such a phenomenon…"

"That doesn't make any sense," Jessie whispered.

"Shhhh!" James shushed her, and she pouted.

"We have no memory of what the change was," Meowth continued, "but we can sense that the source is a human— a human that resides where only the strong can survive."

"Maybe that could be the same human that put out Ho-Oh's flame," Jessie speculated, though her comment went ignored.

Abruptly, the beautiful legendary bird straightened up and spread its colorful wings as if preparing to take off.

"Wait!" James called. "Where can only the strongest survive? Tell us!"

Ho-Oh cackled again as it beat its wings, rising up from the rooftop. The group standing on the roof had to brace themselves to keep from being blown over by the resulting gust.

"It said, 'I have told you all that I know. It is what you do with the information that will determine your fate'," Meowth translated. With a flash of colorful light, Ho-Oh took off into the night, leaving behind a subtle rainbow aura that remained for a few moments before fading away.

"Ugh, why does everything have to be so cryptic?" Jessie complained in frustration. "First, there was the whole 'lies to the East' nonsense, and now 'where only the strongest can survive'. Would it really hurt these legendaries to at least give us an area code?"

"Where only the strongest can survive," James repeated. He kept running the words over in his head, but that didn't help them make any more sense.

"Let's sleep on it," Eusine suggested. "Perhaps, with time, things will become clearer."

"Yeah, and also, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving!" Meowth added. "We were so busy with Ho-Oh that we skipped dinner!"

James heard Jessie's stomach growl loudly, and she agreed, "Yeah. This is too much to think about on an empty stomach."

"I could make fried beets and spinach," Eusine offered.

"I was thinking more like a double cheeseburger," Jessie said.

"Or catfish and cream. Can't go wrong with seafood!" suggested Meowth.

Eusine, Jessie, and Meowth began making their way back to the staircase, chattering excitedly about dinner options, but James lingered behind for a few moments, still pondering Ho-Oh's words. Baffled, he shook his head, about to turn around and follow his companions, when he noticed the glint of an object on the roof that he hadn't seen before.

James walked over to it, knelt down, and picked it up. Up close, he could see that it was what looked like a tiny, round bell made of glass.

Remembering Eusine's bell collection, James thought about giving Eusine the bell as a gift in return for his providing a place to stay, but decided against it. _He's got enough bells, _James reasoned. _Plus, he already owns the Rainbow Wing._ So, instead, James slipped the tiny bell into his pocket.

"James! You coming?" James heard Jessie call impatiently from the bottom of the staircase.

"Yes! Be right along!" James yelled back, taking one last look at Tin Tower's roof before heading over to the staircase to join his companions.

…

It was a cold, dark, rainy night in Blackthorn City.

Clair rummaged around inside her dresser in silence, looking for her favorite, water-resistant cloak. She'd been packing and planning all day, never taking a moment to stop and think, because she knew if she did, she'd break down.

It seemed as if the past week had just been one thing after another, starting with the storm in Mahogany Town. Then, there had been the warnings that another, even more devastating blizzard was approaching, and then the disaster at the Dragon's Den had occurred.

Clair didn't think she could handle any more, but she had to stay strong, for Lance and Pryce if not for herself. Lee, the Master of the Dragon User Clan, had been Lance's great uncle and Clair's grandfather. Clair's mother was Lee's daughter, but when Clair's father had disapproved of the ways of the Dragon User Clan, Clair's parents had moved far away to a region Clair had never visited, and Clair, who had always embraced the traditions of dragon trainers, had remained behind in Blackthorn. Now that Lee was dead, she had no more connection to her mother's side of the family at all.

After Lance had discovered the elderly Master's body, he had informed the police, and a funeral had been held two days later. Clair, of course, had attended, but it had been uncomfortable to see her mother again (her father had not shown), and it had reminded her of the dwindling numbers of the Dragon User Clan. Also, as much as she was grieving the loss of her grandfather, the funeral had forced her to postpone her trip to search for Lugia. She wished she had the time to cry, to mourn her grandfather's loss, but, with the day the storm was predicted to arrive drawing closer and closer, she felt compelled to do everything she possibly could to prevent it.

Clair finally found her cloak, which had been hiding underneath a pile of socks, underwear, and pajamas. Knowing she would be outside in the rain soon, Clair put the water-repellent garment on, fastening its clasp at her neck and covering her head with its hood.

Now fully packed, she hoisted her bag over her shoulder, ready to begin her journey.

Just as she was reaching for her doorknob, someone knocked, and she flinched, startled.

"Come in," she invited.

Her cousin Lance opened the door and entered the room, appearing forlorn.

"Hey," he said, nodding to her halfheartedly. Eyeing the traveling bag she was holding, he inquired, "Going somewhere?"

"Yes," she replied matter-of-factly. "Like I told you three days ago, I'm going to search for Lugia." With the hand that wasn't holding her bag, she clutched her Silver Wing, which she'd fashioned into a necklace that now hung around her neck.

"Still?" Lance questioned incredulously.

"Yes," Clair replied resolutely. "I am as upset about my grandpa as you are, but, if the end of the world really is coming, I still want to try my hardest to stop it."

Lance did not respond, instead staring at the floor as if Clair's rug's pattern fascinated him.

"Are you coming along?" Clair asked, though she was almost certain she already knew what his answer would be.

"What?" Lance asked, looking back up at his cousin like he couldn't believe she'd even asked the question.

"I said, are you coming? It's your last chance— once I step out that door, I'm gone." Actually, that wasn't quite true; if, after she left, she somehow discovered that Lance had changed his mind about joining her, she'd gladly return for him. But any strategy that might persuade Lance to accompany her was worth trying. _I don't want to do this alone, _Clair admitted to herself, though she was willing to if she had to.

Lance peered at her seriously, studying her.

"If I said yes," he inquired, "would you be open to the possibility of including a couple of pit stops on our journey?"

Clair was thrilled that Lance was even contemplating joining her, as she hadn't expected that, but, out of pride, she tried to appear indifferent.

"What kind of 'pit stops'?" she asked.

Lance's expression darkened, and, in his chocolate-colored eyes, Clair saw the signs of a deep-rooted rage residing within him.

"I want to find the person that performed such a despicable act against the Dragon User Clan and give him a taste of his own medicine," Lance announced contemptibly. "That's what I meant by 'pit stops'."

"Ah," Clair acknowledged, nodding. She paused for a moment before replying, "Then, a few pit stops are in order, I think."

Lance took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Then it's decided," he said. He appeared to think to himself for a moment. "Who will take over your gym while you're gone?" he questioned.

"I've asked Pryce to do it," Clair responded casually. "I was hoping it'd take his mind off the Mahogany Town catastrophe. Also, he needs something to keep his mind sharp these days."

Lance nodded. "Clair, to be honest, I'm still not convinced that Lugia is out there," he confessed, "but if it is, we'll find it."

Clair smiled. _That's the best thing he could have said to me,_ she thought. _Well… almost._

"By the way," Lance added, "I've heard that Ecruteak City is practically a breeding ground for legendary pokemon, so maybe we should start there. Let's go overland, though, rather than flying— gives us more places to search on the way."

"Sounds like a plan," Clair affirmed. "Let's go."

"Yes… let's," Lance agreed, sighing, "before I change my mind."


	7. 06

Author's Note:

In this chapter, yet another layer is added. However, this is the final one you will be introduced to. In other words, this is as complex as this story gets. If you have read "Hybrid", this chapter will confuse you (if you haven't, disregard this part of the note). That's good - see if you can figure it out! It might take a couple more chapters to understand it, but maybe not. Jessie and James are absent for this chapter, but they will be back next time. Don't worry!

As always, I value your feedback (REVIEWS). Thank you to **StarWriterWG **and **E****ric Cartman Forever **for reviewing.

Until Friday,

~TheFrogFromHell

**06**

"Three out of eight isn't enough," Domino heard faintly. "We need five. What about Chuck and Jasmine? How are they coming along?"

Keeping her breathing slow and quiet and pressing her ear right up against the wall, Domino could still just barely overhear her husband's phone conversation. _If only he would just tell me these things instead of being so damn secretive all the time, _she thought bitterly.

"Well, then send him a gift package. Organize a goddamn seashore cleanup if you have to! I don't care how you do it, but we need Johto support. Otherwise, this project is going to be much more troublesome than it has to be."

By "project", Domino knew her husband was referring to the expansion of Rocket, Inc. into Johto, but she was frustratingly uninformed about the details.

"If we just march in there, there will be resistance," the man said, lowering his voice menacingly. Domino cringed; it was the way he spoke to her when he was very displeased about something she'd done, and those conversations never ended well for her. "We don't want that, Cassidy. Do you remember Cerulean City? Do you want to see that happen again?"

Domino felt a twinge of jealousy. _Cassidy?_ she scoffed, incredulous. _You mean, that fake blond bitch that all but ruined our Cerulean City takeover? _She's_ in charge of this?!_

"I'm not satisfied with what happened at the Lake of Rage either," the man confessed, his tone of voice sounding just slightly less severe. "Damn kids… they always ruin everything."

Domino heard a loud wailing noise and jumped. "EEP!" she cried out involuntarily, then clamped her hand over her mouth, hoping her husband hadn't heard her. He'd be very upset with her if he discovered she'd been eavesdropping…

Domino cursed to herself when she realized the wailing was the crying of her newborn son; he had awakened from his nap early.

She quietly exited the room, thankful that her husband had his back turned to her and did not notice her tiptoeing by, and scurried down the hall to her son's room.

"Silver," she cooed, lifting the bawling baby boy from his crib and cradling him in her arms, "it's alright, honey, what's wrong?"

Silver, of course, could not answer her in words, but he kept crying, his little face red and wet with tears.

"Are you hungry?" Domino asked. "I'll go make you a bottle."

She carried the baby with her into the kitchen, where she began mixing her son's formula.

As she prepared the baby's meal, she admired the view of Goldenrod City that she saw through the vast kitchen window. She could see rain clouds looming far away, but, for now, the radiant sunshine cast a warm, shimmering glow over the city, making it live up to its namesake. In the distance, she saw the Goldenrod Department Store and the Radio Tower, and, beyond that, the quaint scenery of Route 35.

Technically, the mansion that Domino and her husband were living in now was their "vacation home", but they typically spent about half the year here, and the other half in Viridian City, Domino's husband's hometown.

Domino finished mixing the formula, offering the bottle to her son, who enthusiastically accepted it. _I guess I was right, _Domino figured. _It'd just been too long since he'd had his breakfast._

As the baby suckled the bottle, Domino looked around the enormous, bright kitchen she stood in, trying to be grateful for her privileged life rather than fixated on the things that bothered her.

Like Giovanni.

She supposed she'd been painfully naïve, or perhaps just deluding herself, when she'd married her husband. After all, from attending the missions of Team Rocket and, when the organization had upgraded to Rocket Inc., holding the position of Chief Information Officer for nearly a decade, Domino had been well aware of what Giovanni was capable of. She figured that her infatuation with him had blinded her to the truth.

But now that they had been married six years, that truth was all too obvious: Giovanni cared nothing for Domino, other than whether or not she could be useful and compliant. He seemed to have little interest in their son also; Domino sometimes wondered if her husband had only wanted to have a child in order to ensure that he'd have an heir to continue Rocket Inc.'s legacy after he was dead.

She looked down at her infant son and thought about how callous one would have to be to only pretend to care for him. _He's perfect, _she thought in a conventional motherly fashion, admiring his tiny, smooth hands that grasped his bottle and the fine wisps of red hair that had only recently appeared on his head. _I wonder where he gets that from,_ Domino speculated. _It must be a recessive gene._

Domino's pulse sped up as a shadow darkened the room. She turned around to see her husband standing in the doorway, looming over her dauntingly. Giovanni was over six feet tall and sturdily built, and it was no mystery to Domino why even Rocket Inc.'s top executives were intimidated by him.

"I was just feeding the baby," she remarked casually, avoiding her husband's dark, predatory gaze.

"I noticed that," he replied, keeping his voice low and even. "I also noticed somebody sneaking around, listening in on my private conversation."

Domino had been almost certain she'd managed to sneak by him without being noticed, but evidently she'd been wrong. Her heart pounded and she thought anxiously, _I hope this doesn't go like I think it's going to go._

"I was tidying up," she justified, "and I couldn't help but overhear…"

"Shut your mouth," the man commanded, seething with anger. He took a few steps toward her and she instinctively backed away.

"What?" he inquired with a biting, mock-playfulness injected in his tone. "You're afraid of your own husband now?"

_When you're like this, yes, _Domino thought, though she knew better than to say it aloud. She curled her arms around Silver, who still suckled his bottle, as if to protect him.

She flinched as she felt her husband's hand touch her face, but, surprisingly, he only reached for a lock of her blond hair, twirling it between two of his thick fingers possessively.

"Remember," he breathed, leaning in close to her. Domino could feel his hot breath on her neck, and she shivered. "I made you everything that you are," he threatened, "and don't think that I can't take it away."

Domino, knowing that it was unwise, but unable to stop herself, questioned heatedly, "If that's true, and you made me what I am, then what was the point? Why waste your time training me? It's not like I have any place in Rocket Inc. anymore. I used to be your top executive, but now I guess you'd rather have _Cassidy _doing all the dirty work!"

"It is none of your concern who I choose to run my company," he retorted icily.

Your _company? _Domino thought incredulously. _I was as much a part of Rocket Inc.'s creation as you!_

"I worked for you for twenty years," Domino retaliated. "I used to have a say in everything Rocket Inc. did. Why has that changed?"

Giovanni smirked, tucking her hair behind her ear and taking a step back from her.

"My dear spouse," he said, speaking to her almost as if she was a child, "I believe these last few years of staying at home, performing mundane, domestic tasks, have softened you. It appears the Black Tulip has lost her thorns."

"And whose fault is that?" Domino exclaimed furiously. "I'm a hundred times the Rocket executive that Cassidy is, and you know it!"

Silver was done with his bottle, releasing his grip on it and allowing it to clatter to the floor.

Giovanni's smirk faded, and, once again, he became a predator, now finished toying with his prey and ready to strike.

"Learn your place," he growled, pinning her up against the kitchen counter. Silver, who seemed very uneasy, squirming in his mother's arms, began to whimper. "It has never been your job to question my decisions; not when I hired you, and not now."

"Giovanni, please…" Domino attempted to calm Silver, but her efforts were ineffective; the baby was beginning to cry again.

"Learn to respect your leader!" Giovanni shouted, grabbing Domino's shoulder and digging his strong fingers into her flesh.

"_Stop!_" she cried, squeezing her eyes shut and clutching the wailing baby close to her.

Shockingly, the man obeyed her request, and she slowly opened her eyes, which now shone with tears. Despite being distraught and worried for her child, a thought in the back of her mind dug into her: _he's right. I _have_ lost my thorns._

"The baby," she whispered, and Giovanni just stared at her wordlessly. After a few moments, Silver settled down, and the room was filled with an uncomfortable silence.

Giovanni cleared his throat and, looking away from Domino awkwardly, he said quietly, "I will be in my study. Please do not disturb me unless it's absolutely necessary."

He turned away from her and exited the kitchen, his polished shoes click-clacking on the tile floor.

Domino waited until he was gone, then broke down, allowing her tears to stream down her cheeks. She stroked Silver's face softly; her son was her only source of comfort right now. _Will you be like your father, I wonder? _she pondered. _Will your face one day become the new face of Rocket Inc.? _A few years ago, that thought would have excited her, but today, it only terrified and saddened her.

"You're all I have to live for, Silver," Domino confessed to her son. "I have no place anymore; not with your father, and not in Rocket, Inc."

Silver whimpered, gazing up at her with his baby-blue eyes. She wondered if they'd stay blue like her own forever, or if they'd soon change to the dark brown shade that Giovanni's were. _Brown eyes are always dominant, _she remembered learning a long time ago, and she felt a little sad knowing that the blue in her son's eyes would soon fade away.

…

After passing through the snowy ruins of Mahogany Town for the second time, a journey Lance would be content to never repeat for a third, he and Clair had a decision to make. There were two possible routes to Ecruteak City from here— the shorter, more direct path that would take them across two warm, shallow bodies of water (perfect for swimming) and past some lovely scenery, and the dark, treacherous, grueling path through Mt. Mortar.

Outside, the air was brisk, and the clouds had cleared enough for the sunshine to come through (for a period, anyway), beating down on the blades of the lush, green tall grass to Lance's left, and making the surface of the small lake he could see in the distance shimmer.

To Lance's right was the entrance to Mt. Mortar, which resembled the mouth of a cave. Even from here, he could see that inside, it was ominously dark. He looked from the base of the mountain all the way to the top, whistling at its imposing size.

"If I was a legendary pokemon," Lance commented dryly, "or a murderer on the run, Mt. Mortar would probably seem like a reasonable place to go."

"Mortar it is, then," Clair affirmed.

"Great," Lance said, taking one last wistful look at the beautiful scenery and bright sunshine around him.

"Do any of your pokemon know Flash?" Clair inquired, and Lance nodded, surprised she hadn't thought of that before now.

"I stored one of my dragonites at the Pokemon Center so that I could bring Espeon with me. Usually, I use it when I go train inside Mount Silver."

"I didn't know you had an espeon," Clair remarked.

"Yeah, well, even a dragon master's got to branch out sometimes," Lance replied, winking at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clair asked irritably, frowning and crossing her arms.

"Nothing, cous," he dismissed lightly. He knew better than to outwardly critique his cousin's training techniques (she could have quite the temper when provoked), but three dragonairs and a kingdra weren't exactly what Lance called "variety".

"Well, let's hurry up and get through this mountain," Clair said pressingly. "After all, we _are_ on a time constraint."

"Agreed," Lance said, and the two made their way over to the entrance of the cave.

…

Three hours later, Clair and Lance, even being the strong trainers they were, were sorely regretting their decision to pass through Mt. Mortar. The wild pokemon were not as strong as the ones that resided in Mount Silver, so they mostly left the two cousins alone (with the exceptions of a couple of tenacious Golbat, which had been easily subdued with Clair's Dragonair's Thunderbolt), but the biggest challenge was navigating the place.

Inside, it seemed even larger than it had looked on the outside, which was pretty impressive. Or, at least, it would have seemed impressive to Lance if he hadn't been so worried that he and Clair were lost. Every path they took seemed to only lead them deeper into Mt. Mortar. It was so dark in the heart of the cave that Espeon was beginning to tire of using Flash so often.

Several times, Clair and Lance had needed to surf over large, cold pools of water. Each time, Lance had thought that once they reached the other side, they'd be able to see the exit, but in each instance this hypothesis had, unfortunately, been proven incorrect.

Finally, Lance, Clair, and their pokemon paused, deciding to take a rest.

"This is exhausting," Clair conceded, sighing, "and we've seen no signs of anything besides rocks, water, more rocks, and some low-leveled wild pokemon."

"Well, it _was_ a long shot that Lugia, or the scum who attacked the Dragon's Den, for that matter, would be in here," Lance admitted, "but I thought that, if we were lucky, we might end up capturing two pidgey with one pokeball."

"More like two trainers with one cave," Clair moaned, plopping down on the cave floor and tugging on her hair. "I don't want to be stuck here."

"I don't either," Lance agreed, a little annoyed at his cousin's whining, "and we won't. We just need to rest and think about things for a moment."

Suddenly, an idea came to him, and he retrieved one of his pokeballs from his belt.

"Aerodactyl, go!" he called out, hurling the red and white ball into the air. Out came the rare, powerful beast, who flew around in a circle and screeched excitedly before making a beeline for Lance, greeting him happily by licking his face with its reptilian tongue. Lance chuckled and scratched the pokemon's hard, grey head. Despite its intimidating appearance, Aerodactyl was probably Lance's most sociable pokemon.

"Aerodactyl," Lance instructed his pokemon, "we need you to help us. Can you fly around and find an exit to this cave?"

The pokemon screeched in confirmation, beating its bat-like wings and rising up from Lance. It sniffed the air before choosing a direction to pursue, whirling around, and swiftly soaring away from the two trainers into the darkness of the cavern.

"Aero should find it in no time," Lance remarked confidently.

"I hope so," Clair said.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Lance removed his water bottle from his pack, taking a sip and then offering some to Clair, who declined.

"I've brought my own," she explained, taking it out of her pack along with a sandwich she'd made and some chocolate chip cookies.

Lance's mouth watered. _Wish I would have thought to bring something. _He'd assumed that their journey to Ecruteak would take far less time than it had, so he hadn't packed any snacks.

Clair raised an eyebrow, holding up the bag of cookies. "Want some?" she offered. Lance happily accepted, taking a few and munching away. "You looked a bit like a rabid arcanine for a second there," she teased.

Clair took a bite of her sandwich, then put it down as if remembering something. Removing her pokeballs from her belt, she called, "Hey team, come on out!"

Clair's three dragonair and kingdra materialized, appearing excited to be out of their pokeballs.

Lance followed suit, releasing his dragons from their balls as well. For the moment, Lance was thankful for Mt. Mortar's size; it was spacious enough for all of their pokemon to move around freely. Lance retrieved a carton of dragon pokemon food from his backpack and offered it to his team, who hungrily accepted it. Espeon came to Lance's side and whined, flicking its long, thin, purple tail.

"Don't worry, I've got something for you too," Lance assured it, taking out a smaller container that contained Espeon's lunch. _Well, my backpack's sure gonna be lighter for the rest of the journey, _Lance thought. He just hoped that the rest of the journey wouldn't take too much longer, since he'd just given his pokemon all the food he'd brought.

He was about to take another bite of cookie when he heard something and froze. Clair was crunching on a cookie herself and crinkling up the empty bag she'd brought them in, and Lance held up his hand, shushing her.

Someone, or something, was approaching.

As the noises got closer, Lance was somewhat relieved to discover that they were human voices.

"Hey, man, take it easy! I just wanted a look at your rare pokemon…" someone defended in a somewhat high, nasally male voice.

"It looked to me like you were trying to _steal_ my rare pokemon," replied another person, this one in a deeper voice that seemed to echo off the cave's walls.

"Nope. My nidoking and nidoqueen are enough for me. I don't want any trouble; just let me go!"

"Espeon, Flash," Lance whispered, and his pokemon once again illuminated the cavern with a bright light.

"What was that?" exclaimed the deeper voice, sounding alarmed. Now that the room was brighter, Lance could see the two figures standing atop a rocky mound about a hundred feet away. As he had thought, they were two men. One of them was only a kid, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old. He was unattractively thin, with long, greasy hair and glasses. The other man was large and muscular looking, and he wore what looked like a martial arts uniform.

"I don't know," the younger man answered, "maybe a pokemon?"

"Who's there?" bellowed the other man, and Lance boldly stood up, making his position clear.

"We are Lance and Clair, dragon masters," he announced, "and we are only passing through." Lance's two dragonite came to stand at his sides, and he guessed he was making a memorable first impression.

Clair also rose up, joining Lance. "Hello," she called, acknowledging the men.

"Ah… I know you! You are Clair, the leader of Blackthorn City's gym, and Lance, the former Champion! How surprising to find you deep within Mt. Mortar," said the larger man, who seemed unexpectedly friendly.

"Who are we speaking to?" Lance inquired, not unkindly, but a little warily.

Impressively, the man in the martial arts garb leapt off the dirt mound he was standing on, landing lightly and gracefully on the cave floor below. The skinny teenager behind him attempted to silently sneak away, but, even without turning around, the larger man warned him firmly, "Don't even think about going anywhere."

Standing up and nodding to Clair and Lance, the man said proudly, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kiyo, but most only know me as the Karate King."

Clair and Lance looked at each other and shrugged.

"What? That doesn't ring a bell?" Kiyo exclaimed, sounding both irritated and disappointed.

"Umm… are you related to Chuck, the gym leader in Cianwood who trains fighting pokemon?" Clair inquired.

Kiyo moaned as if he was in extreme agony. "We are most certainly not related," he countered, apparently offended. "That phony was light years behind me when we were in training together. I taught him everything he knows! _I _was the original Karate King."

"Okay," Lance quickly agreed, not wanting to further affront their new acquaintance.

"I led the fighting dojo in Saffron City for fifteen years," the man boasted, standing up tall and puffing out his chest, "and only once was I defeated! No pokemon's physical strength could match that of the Karate King's pokemon."

Suddenly, the man's confidence appeared to fade a little, and his expression darkened.

"Then, Rocket, Inc. came to Saffron, the city where my gym was, and everything changed."

"Rocket Inc.," Lance repeated. "Those two suits that spoke at the Lake of Rage said they were from Rocket Inc."

"They were at the Lake of Rage?" the man questioned in alarm. "You mean… they're in Johto now?"

Lance and Clair looked at each other. "Well, I don't know if they're here _yet_," Lance said, "but they seem to want to expand their business here soon."

"That absolutely cannot happen," Kiyo exclaimed, his pride now completely evaporated, replaced with terror. "I was happy in Kanto, but I left because of them. When they take charge of a city - " he looked at Lance gravely, " - things get ugly. They make all kinds of rules and regulations… which kinds of pokemon you can train, what items you can buy. You even have to have a special license to begin your pokemon journey in a city that Rocket Inc. controls."

"That's ridiculous," Lance remarked angrily. He knew he hadn't liked Bo (or whatever his name had been) and Cassidy when he'd seen them, but he hadn't thought Rocket Inc. could have changed things in Kanto _that_ drastically.

"The worst part is," Kiyo continued, "that if you break the rules too many times, they can take your pokemon away."

"What?!" exclaimed Clair. "That's crazy!"

"When I was Champion," Lance recalled, "right before I quit, the League started asking me and the other Indigo Plateau trainers to alter our battling methods in order to comply with some new 'League regulations'. That sounds a whole lot like what you're saying happened in Saffron City."

"It's not just Saffron City," Kiyo added. "Rocket, Inc. is all over Kanto. They control every gym in the League over there. A couple of the original gym leaders sold out and joined Rocket Inc. when they took over, and they still have their gyms, but everyone else was forced to abandon their positions."

"I had no idea things were that bad," Lance said regretfully, shaking his head.

"We can't let them expand into Johto," Clair stated determinedly. "We have to do everything we can to stop them."

"You can try," said Kiyo doubtfully, "but we Kanto gym leaders fought hard, and we still lost the battle."

"Uh, excuse me," the skinny young man standing on top of the dirt mound yelled down to the group, interrupting their intense conversation, "but I don't have all day. My pokemon are all fainted, and I have to get home. Can someone show me the way out of here?"

Kiyo sighed. "I did make your pokemon faint," he conceded, "so I suppose I owe it to you to escort you to safety, you little crook. But don't you try anything." He turned back to Clair and Lance, sighing. "My apologies," he said, "but I have to remove this young trainer from the cave. He was scrounging for items and rare pokemon— not honorably, I might add— and I decided to teach him a lesson, but now his pokemon can't battle, so it's not safe for him to travel alone."

"My pokemon were tired from the journey," the trainer protested. "If they'd been at their full strength, I'd have crushed you!"

Clair turned to Lance, raising an eyebrow. "Do you think he could be…?" she whispered.

"No way," Lance countered, shaking his head, "there's no chance that kid could have been strong enough to get past the wild dragons in the Dragon's Den." It would have certainly made their job easier if the trainer _had _been the murderer, but somehow Lance just knew that couldn't be the truth.

"Well, dragon masters, I bid you farewell," Kiyo said, bowing to them and beginning to turn around. Then, as if in an afterthought, he stopped. "Wait," he said, reaching for his belt and removing a pokeball.

"This is a young fighting pokemon I've been training," he explained. "I think Mt. Mortar is a bit much for it, though, and this is where I train most of the time. I've been looking for a strong, kind trainer to look after it and give it some real battle experience. Do you think one of you could take it?"

Clair and Lance exchanged surprised looks. "Well, we could," Clair said tentatively, "but are you sure you want to give it to us and not to another fighting-type pokemon trainer?"

"Well, usually I would battle a trainer first before entrusting them with one of my pokemon," Kiyo admitted, "but I knew when I saw your dragons that both of you are talented trainers that keep your pokemon strong and healthy. Also, maybe this pokemon, when it levels up, can help you in your quest to stop Rocket Inc."

"Uh… okay," Clair agreed, still seeming taken aback. "Thanks."

"Clair, why don't you take it," Lance suggested. "My party is full, and yours could use another pokemon."

She accepted the pokemon while shooting Lance a discontented look. _Oops, _he thought, _I didn't mean it like that! _Although, he had to stop himself from snickering.

"Thank you," Kiyo said graciously, bowing once again. "Goodbye, and I wish you the best of luck— and strength— on your quest."

The man turned around and raced at top speed up the side of the dirt mound in an impressive display of agility. He scooped up the young, skinny trainer, who protested, "Hey!", in his arms, and sprinted back into the depths of Mt. Mortar.

"Well, that was interesting," Lance remarked.

Clair gasped and punched Lance in the shoulder before exclaiming, "Lance, we are so stupid! We should have asked him to show us the way out!"

"I guess so," Lance replied, though in actuality he'd been too prideful to ask. Also, he knew that Aerodactyl would come back soon, and he hadn't wanted the pokemon to be unable to find them. "But it's too late now, anyway."

Clair didn't look entirely pleased with her cousin, but she didn't protest. The two trainers returned most of their pokemon to their balls (with the exception of Espeon and the two dragons, Kingdra and Gyarados, that Lance and Clair were using to Surf) and prepared to move on. _Where is Aero? _Lance thought, _I thought it would be back by now._

Lance looked around and noticed that he couldn't see Clair next to him anymore. _The Flash has faded, _he figured. "Espeon, use Flash again!" he instructed it.

"Espe!" the pokemon protested, which confused Lance. He took a breath in and felt a strange tightness in his lungs. He began coughing violently, his eyes watering. _I get it, _he realized in horror. _Espeon _is _using Flash— it's not darkness I'm seeing, it's smoke! But where's the fire?_

"Clair, we have to get out of this!" Lance coughed, walking forward blindly and waving his arms out in front of him. "Aero? Aero, where are you? Can you hear me?" His foot caught on a rock, and he stumbled forward.

He thought he heard his flying dragon pokemon screech in reply, but something else— something much more urgent— distracted him.

Lance screamed as he found himself falling into a cold, damp darkness.


	8. 07

**07**

The morning after their encounter with Ho-Oh, Jessie woke up with a full belly, but she still felt empty inside. _Ho-Oh wasn't the answer we were looking for, _she thought in frustration, sitting up on the foldable futon Eusine had provided for them to sleep on. After the whole ordeal, they still didn't have any idea how to prevent the end of the world from coming. Even Jessie had to admit that James had been remarkably courageous, the way he'd stood up to the legendary bird, but he'd been too quick to agree to Ho-Oh's bargain, she thought. _Now, we have to find the human that "put out Ho-Oh's flame", _she remembered, sighing exasperatedly. _How the heck are we going to do that? What _is_ Ho-Oh's flame, anyway? And if we aren't able to find the person -_ Jessie gulped - _what then?_

"James," Jessie moaned to her sleeping companion, "why did you get us into this mess?"

James groaned and rolled over. "Sleeping," he said into his pillow, but it sounded like "smoofeen" to Jessie, since it was muffled.

"Well, it's time you woke up," Jessie insisted. "It's nearly nine o'clock, and we've got to get a move on! You heard what that birdbrain said last night; we've got to find this 'flame extinguisher' person before the storm comes."

Slowly and reluctantly, James sat up, stretching his arms overhead. "When's the storm coming?" he asked in the middle of a huge yawn.

"Well, we don't know," Jessie admitted. _We were too busy gathering herbs to check the weather channel, I guess_, she realized. "That's why we need to move fast!"

Jessie and James heard a knock, and they turned to see the guest room's door opening.

Eusine stood outside the door with oven mitts on his hands and a proud grin on his face.

"I've made breakfast," he told them eagerly. "One of my specialties— tofu-rhubarb soufflés!"

"Oh," Jessie said, smiling and trying to muster some polite enthusiasm, "those sound…"

"Like nothing we've ever tasted before!" James finished.

"Well, I did invent the recipe," Eusine remarked.

In a few minutes, the two joined Eusine at the breakfast table, and Jessie was relieved to find that the soufflés were tolerable, at least, though their texture was a bit strange.

"Enjoying your breakfast?" Eusine inquired as if fishing for a compliment.

"Errr… yes," James answered, and Jessie only nodded, as she had her mouth full.

"I figured you'd need a big, nutritious meal to keep your strength up while you look for whoever put out Ho-Oh's flame," Eusine explained.

Jessie swallowed her mouthful of soufflé and replied, "Oh." She was surprised; for some reason, she'd been expecting Eusine to come along with them.

Evidently, James had been thinking the same thing, because he asked, "What are you doing today, Eusine?"

The question appeared to have caught the man off guard. "Well," he answered tentatively, "I… err… have an errand to run."

"What kind of an errand?" Jessie asked, but nobody heard her because there was a knock on the front door just as she said it.

"That's probably Mr. Cat," Eusine predicted, rising up from his seat and heading towards the front door. Jessie and James snickered to each other; Meowth had never been, and never would be, "Mr. Cat" to them.

Sure enough, Jessie heard the talking pokemon greet their host, making light conversation as he and Eusine walked to the kitchen to join Jessie and James at the breakfast table.

Meowth had told them that his house was in Goldenrod City, which wasn't far from Ecruteak, so he'd been traveling back and forth. Actually, Jessie had been wondering if he was getting tired of the commute, since he'd come to Ecruteak every day since they'd arrived.

"So what's the plan, guys?" Meowth asked as Jessie and James were finishing up the last scraps of their breakfast.

"Well… we're going to go find the person who put out Ho-Oh's flame, I guess," Jessie said reluctantly, since that idea still seemed questionable to her.

"Ho-Oh said we had to before the storm comes, or there will be 'consequences'," James recalled, looking a little queasy at the idea of "consequences".

"The storm," Meowth said, pausing to think for a moment. "Do you think it meant the storm that's supposed to hit Newbark Town and Blackthorn City in four days?"

"What?" Jessie exclaimed. "How did you know about that?"

"Umm… the news?" Meowth replied.

_Of course, _Jessie thought, shaking her head in irritation. _Why have we been relying on the incomprehensible riddles that these legendaries seem to spew when a perfectly coherent weatherman is just a click of a television remote away?_

"Four days?" James questioned in alarm. "You mean, we only have _four days_ to find whoever extinguished the flame?"

"Or," Meowth interjected, holding up one of his claws as if to make a point, "or, we find the human that's causing all the trouble in the world, the one who's hiding out 'where only the strong can survive'. If we fix that problem, there will be no more storms, and then Ho-Oh will never come after us!"

Jessie was floored at Meowth's revelation, and James appeared the same way. "Wow, Meowth," she observed, "good thinking."

Meowth looked surprised by her compliment. "Thanks, Jessie," he replied hesitantly.

"I happened to think a little more about what Ho-Oh could have meant by 'where only the strong survive'," Eusine said, and the others listened attentively.

"East of here," Eusine explained, "stands an enormous cave known as Mt. Mortar. Very few travelers who pass by it choose to enter it, for it is rumored to be the most challenging cavern to navigate in all of Johto."

"Rumored to be," Jessie responded dryly, "as in, you've never actually been there?"

Eusine pressed his lips together into a tight line, and, for a fleeting moment, she saw something in his gaze that made her uneasy.

"I have not been to that particular cave, no," Eusine clarified, "but do not let that mislead you; I have conquered paths far more treacherous than Mortar."

"Huh," Jessie replied casually, not entirely believing him, but choosing not to argue.

"Anyhow," Eusine continued, still eyeing Jessie darkly, "four days is, indeed, a very short time in which to find this mystery person. However, searching in places like Mt. Mortar, where one's strength would most definitely be tested, greatly improves our chances."

"True," James agreed, and Jessie raised her eyebrows at him, which he did not notice. "Well, if we're going to Mortar, we should do it today. If we don't find anything there, we need plenty of time to look other places."

_Is he crazy? _Jessie wondered, widening her eyes in shock.

"James," Jessie said seriously, "a word. In private."

Before he had time to respond, she'd risen up from the table, snatched James by the arm, and pulled him along with her. She dragged him through the sitting room and outside via the sliding glass door in the back of the house, so that they could talk alone outside on Eusine's patio.

She noticed that James looked more than a little annoyed with her, which was irritating.

"What are you thinking?" she cried in disbelief. "We don't know anything about Mt. Mortar! Wild pokemon in caves can be pretty tough, and we only have four pokemon between us that can actually battle!"

"Yeah, and that's including Wobbuffet," James pointed out.

"And what's wrong with Wobbuffet?" Jessie snarled, then realized that she could have used James's comment to further prove her point. _Oh well._

Forcing herself to calm down a little, Jessie cleared her throat and said, "All I'm saying is, the last cave we went in was Rock Tunnel, when we were chasing those twerps, and you remember _that _disaster…"

"Weezing's third head has never been the same," James recalled tragically.

Jessie nodded sympathetically. "And do you really want to risk our luck in another cave, where the same thing could happen to its second, or first head?"

James looked at her, his eyes full of panic at first, but then, to her surprise, his new determination returned.

"No, Jessie, I don't," he admitted, and Jessie was about to breathe a sigh of relief. "But," he continued, "what else can we do? What will we do when Ho-Oh comes looking for us? Or, for that matter, when the storms get worse, like Raikou said they would?"

Jessie thought for a moment. "Umm… run?" she speculated. "Or… steal a yacht, relocate to the Orange Islands, and change our names to Harvey and Bailey? Ho-Oh would never find us there."

James appeared to consider the idea momentarily, but then he shook his head resolutely.

"You know what, Jessie," James declared, "sometimes… I get tired of this. I get tired of being the bad guy and failing at everything we try. I'm sick of shabby apartments, dead end jobs, expired coupons, crumpled dollar bills, empty refrigerators, waking up every morning hating my reflection and feeling like my life is purposeless—"

"I get the idea, James," Jessie interrupted. _Because I know it all too well,_ she thought to herself.

"Anyway… what if we could change that? What if we could actually succeed at something for once?"

Jessie was shocked; she had never even considered that idea before. These days, she began most of her endeavors with the preconceived notion that she would fail. _Actually, it's quite liberating,_ she thought, then frowned.

"If we could actually find whoever this mystery person is, we would save more than the world," James proclaimed. "We could save…"

"Our souls!" Jessie exclaimed, clasping her hands together and looking up to the sky with a dreamy expression on her face.

"Um… or, our future," James commented quietly, and Jessie realized she'd gotten carried away, "though… 'souls' works, too."

"But James," Jessie began, seeing his perspective, but still concerned, "what if our pokemon just aren't strong enough. What if, when we get to Mt. Mortar, we just fail… again?"

"Then we'll just have to try our hardest," James declared. "Not _all_ of our pokemon are weak, and we can always catch new ones."

Jessie noted that he'd said "catch" rather than "steal", and she tried to remember the last time they'd actually caught a pokemon using honest methods.

"Alright, James," Jessie agreed, still a bit unsure, but, surprisingly, enjoying her friend's change of attitude. _I'll give this a shot, _she decided, _and, who knows, if this new approach doesn't work out, well… it probably won't last very long, anyway._

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Meowth and Eusine stepped out onto the patio. Eusine wore his usual purple suit, with a small scroll of paper tucked into its chest pocket. His dirty blond hair looked lighter than usual in the sunlight.

"Well, I'm off," Eusine chirped brightly. "I predict I shall return this evening before suppertime. I'll be making my famous Luffa Lasagna!"

"That sounds…" James started.

"Fabulous!" Jessie exclaimed, just hoping Eusine would leave soon. _To be honest, the guy's starting to get on my nerves, _she thought.

"What's a Luffa?" Meowth whispered to Jessie, who shrugged.

"Are you three headed to Mt. Mortar?" Eusine inquired.

"Yes," James answered. "We're going to be leaving soon."

The man nodded and responded, "Excellent."

He took the small scroll of paper out of his suit's pocket and handed it to James, who unfurled it.

"MT. MORTAR," it read at the top. Underneath the lettering was a huge, dauntingly complex maze of tunnels that made Jessie consider reevaluating their plans.

"There are three entrances to the cave," Eusine told them. "It doesn't matter which you use, really, but the West Entrance is the one closest to here. You'll find that one right off Route 42."

"Okay," James answered, studying the map as if its complexity didn't faze him at all.

_When did an alien take over James's body? _Jessie wondered in disbelief as she remained quiet, hoping against hope that going to Mt. Mortar wasn't going to be a huge mistake.

…

An hour later, Jessie, James, and Meowth were all packed up and ready to begin their journey. They'd brought snacks (most of which were packaged up leftovers, and Jessie was secretly hoping that they wouldn't be gone long enough to have to eat them), pokemon food, an ancient Repel they'd found in Eusine's bathroom that Jessie hoped would still have an effect, and, at Meowth's suggestion, a flashlight. They'd also brought along a few unused pokeballs they'd been saving for the right occasion, though Jessie knew there was a real possibility that the wild pokemon in the cave might be too strong for them to catch.

They'd checked the prices at the PokeMart a couple blocks away, but, of course, all the merchandise was out of their price range. _Everything in this city's just too expensive for regular people like us, _Jessie had thought in frustration as they'd walked away empty handed. _We'll just have to do without Potions or Revives._

Route 42 was not far from Eusine's house, and, within half an hour of walking, the gigantic form of Mt. Mortar came into view. As Eusine had informed them earlier, the West entrance was the closest, and it quickly became visible on their left. Jessie gulped when she noticed how dark it was, wondering if only one flashlight would be enough.

Noticing that James seemed markedly more confident than she did, she turned to Meowth for comfort.

"Are you prepared for this, Meowth?" she asked him nervously.

"You betcha," Meowth replied boldly. "My eyes can see perfectly in the dark!" Then, noticing her hesitance, he added, "But, err, I'm sure I'd be fine even if they couldn't."

"Alright," James said determinedly, "I think it's time for… Weezing, Victreebel, lead the way!" he threw his pokeballs, and the two pokemon that made up his faithful team appeared.

"Weezing, Wee!" called the purple, gaseous pokemon in its low, almost pained voice.

Victreebel leapt up to bite James on the head, but, at the last minute, he moved out of the way, and the pokemon ended up latching on to the back of his shirt instead.

"Alright," Jessie declared, deciding that, if they were really going into the cave, she at least needed to have her pokemon ready. "Arbok, let's go!" she threw Arbok's pokeball and then, reluctantly, grasped a second pokeball, saying, "I might regret this… but come on out, Wobbuffet!"

The two pokemon were released, appearing excited to be free from their pokeballs and enjoying the bright, sunny day. Jessie and James rarely battled anymore, so she knew the pokemon felt cooped up a lot of the time. _Maybe that's why Wobbuffet always comes out without permission, _Jessie thought a little guiltily.

Jessie's nerves escalated as the party approached the cave's entrance. _We'll be fine, _she tried to assure herself as they stepped inside.

Right away, she realized that she'd never been inside a cavern this dark, not even Rock Tunnel. As the group walked into the cave, getting farther and farther from its entrance, their only source of light began to disappear.

"Where's that flashlight?" Jessie inquired, trying not to panic.

"Right here," Meowth answered casually. Jessie heard a click, and suddenly a circle of yellow light appeared on the cave's floor. However, the flashlight was a lot less effective than she'd hoped it would be; the small beam of light it emitted was hardly enough to counteract the blackness that surrounded them. _If only we had a pokemon that knew Flash... _Jessie thought. _But there's no way we could afford an HM05. _

The trio trudged forward with Meowth leading the way, followed by James and then Jessie. Arbok and Wobbuffet remained next to Jessie, while Weezing floated next to James's head, and Victreebel was content to stay happily latched onto its trainer's upper back. Many times, Jessie nearly ran into things because of the poor visibility, and she was incessantly tripping over rocks and rough patches of ground.

_How are we supposed to find this mystery person when we can't even see anything? _Jessie wondered in frustration. _And that's assuming the person is here at all…_

Again, Jessie tripped over something, this time flailing her arms as she fell forward, crashing into Arbok and Wobbuffet before face-planting on the cave floor.

"Are you okay, Jessie?" Jessie heard Meowth ask in concern. "The last time I saw somebody eat that much dirt was The Boss, after he told us the hot air balloon was a good idea."

Jessie picked herself up, grimacing as she spit out the dirt and mud that had gotten into her mouth.

"That was a big rock," she commented distastefully. Meowth shone the flashlight on the ground where she'd tripped, and Jessie noticed something odd— the rock had arms.

"Wait a minute… that wasn't a rock, it was a…" Jessie began.

"Rock lobster?" James inquired.

"Ugh, don't be ridiculous James, it's a geodude!" Jessie said, rolling her eyes.

The pokemon appeared to be halfway buried in the ground (sleeping, Jessie figured), and as Meowth continued to shine the flashlight around, Jessie noticed that there were _tons _of them. _I've been stumbling over wild pokemon this whole time! _she realized. She just hoped that the wild pokemon didn't get much scarier than a geodude…

Since the group couldn't see what was ahead of them very well, they tried to keep their path as straight as possible so as to avoid getting lost. However, a few times, the trail forked off into two paths, or curved sharply, and Jessie began to get nervous wondering how they'd remember their way back. Also, what made matters worse was that the farther they progressed into the cavern, the darker it got. Even with the flashlight and the map (which was nearly indecipherable in the dim lighting), navigation was proving to be very challenging.

Jessie jumped as she heard a noise behind her.

"Chop," said a voice that sounded similar to a human child's.

_Chop?! _Jessie thought in terror. _What if it's a hatchet murderer?!_

"JAMES!" Jessie squealed. "Th-there's something behind us!"

James and Meowth, ahead of Jessie, whirled around, illuminating the path behind Jessie with the flashlight.

"Chop?" the speaker inquired innocently. Jessie breathed a sigh of relief when she discovered that it was only a wild, young machop, not even very much larger than Meowth.

"Thank goodness," Jessie breathed. "James, you won't believe what I thought it was, it was terri—"

"Jessie!" James exclaimed, interrupting her. "Stop talking, and start catching!"

Jessie frowned. _Catching? _Oh!

Jessie's heart pounded; it had been so long since she'd caught a pokemon that she was unsure what to do. _I've got to act fast, before it runs away! _

"Okay," she stated, rapidly planning in her head what she would do in different scenarios. "Arbok, go! Use Bite!"

"Aaaarbok!" the pokemon hissed, lunging forward at the wild machop and clamping its fangs down on the fighting pokemon's head.

The machop looked confused for a moment, whimpering "Mach?" Then, it appeared to come to its senses and started punching Arbok in its neck with an impressive force.

"Aaaarr!" the snake objected, taken by surprise. As it had opened its mouth to speak, it had accidentally released Machop's head.

"Don't let it get away, Jessie!" James yelled.

"I'm _not_, James!" she retorted irritably. "Quick, Arbok, Poison Sting!"

The huge snake whipped its tail around and stuck the wild machop with its sharp stinger. The young pokemon howled before beginning to stumble around, looking dazed and disoriented.

_The poison's affecting it, _Jessie figured, _but I can't let it faint. I've got to catch it first!_

"Use Wrap!" Jessie yelled, and Arbok coiled itself around the wild pokemon, clenching it tightly. The machop attempted to punch Arbok again, but its movements were too restricted for it to be very effective.

_Now's my chance, _Jessie thought, her heart racing in anticipation. "Pokeball, go!" she yelled, hurling one of the empty pokeballs they'd brought toward the wild machop.

The pokemon transformed into a beam of red light before being enclosed in the pokeball. Arbok backed off from the ball as it twitched side to side, showing signs of a struggle. Jessie stood perfectly still, gritting her teeth, her eyes fixed on the pokeball…

"POOF!" The ball glowed momentarily, signifying that the pokemon had been caught.

"James," Jessie said softly, not quite believing her eyes, "did I just…"

"You… _caught a pokemon_!" James exclaimed, rushing over to Jessie as she stooped down to pick up the ball.

"I did," Jessie repeated, still astounded. "I really did!"

"See?" James said, and the two giggled excitedly together. "We _can_ do this! We don't have to fail at everything!"

"Machop," Jessie said, holding up the pokeball and gazing at it amazedly, "you're my good luck charm!"

For quite a while, the group continued forward, their spirits lifted by the momentous event that had occurred. "Weren't Arbok and I amazing?" Jessie kept saying. "I had no idea I could actually catch anything!" James and Meowth agreed enthusiastically for about the first half hour (after that, they settled into a state of lukewarm interest).

Ahead, the road began to get steeper. Layers of dirt and rock rose higher and higher, creating what almost looked like a natural staircase. In the distance, Jessie could hear the trickling and splashing of water.

"Sounds like there's a lake ahead," she commented brightly to the others. "There are probably water pokemon there."

"Uh-huh," Meowth acknowledged uninterestedly, which annoyed Jessie.

"What I mean is," Jessie decided to clarify, "maybe I could _catch_ some water pokemon there, and make our team even more amazing then it already is. I mean, after that machop back there, I think I could catch anything!" She held up Machop's pokeball once again. "Remember, this thing was _tough!_ Did you even _see _its biceps? I was unsure at first, but Arbok—"

"Jessie," James interjected, "look!"

Jessie was shocked to discover that she could actually see James well enough to tell where he was pointing.

"Light!" she gasped. "But where is it coming from?"

"Someone must be using Flash," Meowth reasoned.

The dirt path the group was following met up with a shallow stream, and they continued on, walking next to the body of water on its narrow bank. The stream grew deeper and wider as the group trudged on, and, soon, they found themselves at the base of a huge waterfall. Looking up it, Jessie noticed that it was so tall that she couldn't even see what was at the top.

Jessie perked up as she heard a loud, high-pitched cry of a pokemon. _A zubat? _she considered.

She quickly discovered how wrong she was when she saw a grey, wiry, flying pokemon with sharp teeth, talons, and an enormous, bat-like wingspan. It appeared to be at an unusually high level, and it could move so fast in the air that Jessie could barely follow it.

"Who's that pokemon?" she asked.

"It's… Aerodactyl!" James exclaimed.

"Should we run for cover?" asked Meowth a little anxiously.

"Nope," Jessie replied with the utmost confidence. "I'm going to catch it!"

"Jessie, I don't know if that's such a hot idea…" Meowth began, but Jessie waved him away dismissively.

Studying her pokemon, Arbok and Wobbuffet, Jessie realized she had a problem.

"I don't have any pokemon that can attack it while it's in the air like that," she said disappointedly.

"But I do," James announced determinedly, stepping forward, "and it's my turn to catch one, anyway! Weezing, go! Use Smog attack on Aerodactyl!"

"Weezing, weeeeeeeeeee!" The pokemon called out as it rose up into the air, aiming a huge cloud of thick, dark smog in Aerodactyl's direction.

Jessie, though disappointed that she wouldn't be able to catch Aerodactyl herself, yelled, "Get 'em, James!"

Aerodactyl let out a pained screech before bursting out of Weezing's cloud, hacking loudly and beating its wings to waft the smoke away.

"Weezing, use Tackle!" James instructed.

The pokemon complied, hitting Aerodactyl full on while it was still incapacitated from coughing.

Realizing that this might be the only opportunity, Jessie yelled to her comrade, "James, now!"

"Alright," James said, removing an empty pokeball from his belt, "pokeball, go!"

He hurled the ball forcefully towards Aerodactyl, a perfect shot.

_He's really going to do it, _Jessie thought incredulously, but then, to her shock, the ball hit the pokemon squarely in the chest, ricocheted off it, and landed with a "plop" in the water below.

Jessie and James looked at each other, dumbfounded.

"What… happened?" Jessie inquired.

"Maybe I didn't weaken it enough?" James speculated.

"Or, maybe, that pokemon already belongs to someone else," Meowth suggested.

The two jumped in surprise as they heard splashing in the water, and then a figure rose up, soaking wet and sputtering. He shouted angrily in a resonating, deep voice, "Yeah… me!"


	9. 08

****Author's Note:

Guys...*tears of joy* I am thrilled to announce that I was overwhelmed with reviews this week! Eight in total for "Resistance" since my last posting. Thank you to **Anla'shok**, **Adin Terim**, **StarWriterWG**, and **MyNoseAgreesWithMe** for all your feedback!

Just for that, you get a marathon chapter this time (okay, okay, chapter length has nothing to do with how many reviews I get, but still... exciting revelations in this installment)! Let me know what you think.

Until Friday,

~TheFrogFromHell

**08**

"Weezing, Victreebel, return!" the strange man called out to his pokemon as he recalled them to their pokeballs. His partner did the same, and Lance noticed that her Wobbuffet protested loudly. Strangely, they left their meowth, who stood upright like a human, out of its ball.

Lance hadn't been so livid since he'd been forced to leave Indigo Plateau. He studied the two buffoons, who gaped at him, evidently too stunned to say a word. At first, Lance had figured that they had intentionally tried to steal his pokemon, but, from the looks of them, there was a possibility they were just too dimwitted to realize that aerodactyl were virtually unheard of in the wild.

"Wh-who are you?" inquired the woman, who was tall with long red hair (very similar to Lance's own color, he noted) and an odd expression on her face that told Lance she definitely had something to hide. The man she was with was equally tall, had blue hair (which, coincidentally, was close to Clair's color) and he had the same air about him as the woman, which made Lance wonder if the two were related.

And what was with their pokemon? _It is an interesting choice, bringing a meowth into a cave like this, _Lance thought to himself. _I wonder what they were thinking?_ He chuckled. _Of course, they probably weren't thinking at all._

Then, to Lance's disbelief, the cat pokemon opened its mouth and yelled, "Hey, buddy, Jessie asked you a question!"

"That thing can _talk_?" Lance inquired in shock.

"Of course I can talk!" the meowth replied, apparently very offended. "Do you even know who I _am_?"

"Do you know who _I _am?" Lance countered angrily. "I am Lance, a skilled dragon master and former Pokemon League Champion, and you were trying to capture my aerodactyl!"

"_Former_ champion?" the blue-haired man asked, cocking his head to the side and frowning. "Who beat you?"

Lance clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in frustration. _Now is _not _the time for annoying questions!_

"Well, _I _am the Astonishing Magic Cat, _current _magician, world famous for my incredible skills in magic," the cat pokemon boasted.

"Funny," Lance retaliated sarcastically, "_I've _never heard of you!"

"What, have you been living in a hole for the last five years?" the redheaded woman shot back equally as bitingly.

"Jessie," the blue-haired man said to his companion, under his breath but still loud enough for Lance to hear, "_we_ didn't even know he was famous until a few days ago."

"That's beside the point!"

Lance snickered to himself again. Who _were _these idiots, anyway?

"Lance, what's going on?" he heard his cousin call from behind him. He turned around to see Clair standing atop the waterfall with Espeon, Kingdra, and Gyarados beside her.

"Wow, James," Lance heard the cat pokemon comment, "that lady looks like she could be your sister!"

_That's ridiculous, _Lance thought. _Clair looks much more intelligent than this "James"._

"No way," James argued, "my hair has much more body."

_Point proven._

"Clair," Lance called up to her, "I'll get Aerodactyl to fly you down safely."

"Not necessary," she declined confidently, gracefully jumping onto Kingdra's back. Skillfully, the pokemon approached the steep waterfall and Surfed down it, not even once coming close to spilling its rider. At the bottom, Clair casually tossed her still-mostly-dry hair over her shoulder before approaching Lance and the others.

"That was an impressive dive," James commented.

"Stop complimenting her, James; you're all wet!" said the redheaded woman.

"But I'm drenched in admiration!"

"You two are so shallow," Meowth remarked.

_Are these three some kind of comedy team? _Lance wondered. _Because _I _wouldn't buy tickets to their show._

"Gyarados," Lance called to his dragon pokemon, who still remained at the top of the fall, "can you Surf down the waterfall like Kingdra did?"

The pokemon roared in affirmation.

"Espeon, jump onto Gyarados's back for a ride!" Lance instructed, and soon, his pokemon, too, had maneuvered down the waterfall and joined the group at the bottom.

"Who are you three?" Clair asked the strange trio, hopping off Kingdra's back to join them on land.

Alarmingly, the three looked at each other, grinning evilly for a moment. Then, the redheaded woman cleared her throat and began,

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation," added James.

"To denounce the evils of—"

"GUYS!" shouted Meowth, "What are we doin'? We're not a part of Team Rocket anymore, remember?!"

The two stopped talking, appearing dazed for a moment. Then, they turned back to Clair and Lance with blank expressions on their faces and said together, "We're Jessie, James, and Meowth."

Sighing, the redheaded woman— "Jessie", Lance gathered— added, "I guess with the three of us reunited, we just got carried away."

"Wait a second," Clair interjected, "did you say you used to be a part of Team Rocket? You mean, like Rocket Inc.?"

"No… and yes…" James began.

"It's a long story. We'll save it for a rainy day!" Jessie continued.

_Yeah right, _Lance thought. _Rocket Inc. would never hire such buffoons_.

Lance turned to his cousin. "Unfortunately, a whole lot of rainy days are supposed to be coming soon, and we haven't found who we're looking for here. We were waiting for Aero to come back, and we've found it, so I think it's time we got out of here." The flying pokemon, still looking disgruntled from the incident earlier, descended down and landed at Lance's side.

Actually, Lance would have been content with any excuse that would get them away from these three idiots, but it _was_ getting late. _We've used up a whole day in this cave,_ Lance thought. _Things are not looking good for finding Lugia— or the murderer— before the storm hits._

"Aero," Lance asked his pokemon, "did you find the way out?"

The pokemon shook its head regretfully and screeched.

"It said, 'no, I was distracted by these three…' Hey!" Meowth exclaimed, crossing his arms and glaring at Aerodactyl.

"That's alright," Lance assured it. "Why don't you take a rest for a while? Return." He held up his pokeball, and Aerodactyl transformed into a beam of light before being enveloped by the ball.

Clair sighed exasperatedly, and Lance knew he was in for it.

"How are we supposed to find our way out _now_?" his cousin complained.

"Umm… a map?" Lance and Clair turned to face James, who had spoken. The man removed a tiny scroll of paper from his pocket and unfurled it, handing it to Lance. It read "MT. MORTAR" in old-fashioned lettering at the top.

As Lance studied the pictures and text printed on the paper, he recognized some of the tunnels they'd already passed through. The huge waterfall they were standing next to was marked clearly on the map, and it looked like it would be pretty simple to find their way back out from here.

"This is… great," Lance admitted. "Where did you get it?"

"Our friend Eusine gave it to us," Meowth answered.

Lance frowned. _Eusine, _he pondered. _That's an unusual name, and it sounds very familiar… _However, since he was unable to remember why, he let it go for the moment.

"Can we borrow this to help us find our way out?" Clair inquired. "You guys can tag along if you want."

The three looked at each other, exchanging what appeared to be suspicious glances.

They're _suspicious of _us_? _Lance thought incredulously.

"We, uh… need a moment to discuss this," Jessie said seriously.

"Err… okay," Clair agreed, looking at Lance and raising an eyebrow.

The group scurried over to the cave wall, glancing at Clair and Lance warily every so often as they whispered secretively.

"I don't get these people. They're totally bizarre," Clair remarked quietly to Lance. "Do you think we should trust them?"

"Definitely not," Lance answered, "but they have that map, and getting out of here will be much tougher without it. I say, we find our way out, and the minute we do, we get the hell away from them."

"Good plan," Clair concurred.

After a couple of minutes, the trio returned, appearing to have made a decision.

"We've determined," Jessie declared, "that you may use our map to find your way out, and that we will accompany you."

"Okay," Lance agreed, and Clair nodded. "Which way's out?"

…

With Jessie, James, and Meowth leading, the group exited the cavern containing the huge waterfall and began their passage through to the West entrance of Mt. Mortar. Lance had been unaware that Mt. Mortar had three entrances until he'd seen them on the map. He and Clair had come in through the East entrance (which made sense, since they'd been traveling from Mahogany Town), and Jessie, James, and Meowth had accessed the cave via the West entrance, which was the nearest to Ecruteak city. Thankfully, exiting through the West entrance was the most convenient for Clair and Lance, since they'd been headed that way anyway, but they would have been happy with any exit if it meant getting out of Mt. Mortar.

"It's sure easier gettin' around in here now that we've got Espeon to use that handy Flash," commented the talking meowth, who was walking just in front of Lance and Clair.

Lance's jaw dropped, and he noticed that his cousin's did the same.

"You mean, you got all the way to that waterfall without Flash?" Clair questioned disbelievingly.

"We sure did," Jessie affirmed. "Those were dark times."

"Beyond a shadow of a doubt," James added.

"James, don't make light of this situation!"

Lance rolled his eyes. "Okay, guys… can we stop with the puns already?"

Jessie and James turned around, frowning at him. "Lighten up!" they exclaimed together.

"I guess I deserved that," Lance said quietly to Clair, who snickered.

The deep pool of water the group was walking next to narrowed into a creek, and then just a shallow stream before disappearing entirely. Lance and Clair were forced to recall their aquatic dragon pokemon, though Lance still kept Espeon out so it could use Flash.

"We can't be far now," remarked James.

"Get ready…" Lance heard Jessie say to James under her breath.

"Hey," Lance inquired, "ready for what?"

The trio didn't answer him, which made him nervous.

"I don't like this," he whispered to Clair. "I'm thinking this might have been a big mistake."

"Me too," she agreed, sounding equally anxious. Lance kept a hand on one of his pokeballs, just in case anything questionable was to happen, and he assumed that his cousin was probably doing the same.

Soon, in the distance, Lance began to see the light of the outside world flooding in through an arced entrance to the cavern. It wasn't as bright outside as it had been that morning, so he figured it was probably almost sunset. Even though Jessie, James, and Meowth made him nervous, it was relieving to finally see the outside world again after such a long haul inside Mt. Mortar.

_Maybe nothing bad's going to happen after all, _Lance thought optimistically, smiling to himself as the group reached the exit and stepped outside.

"Alright, guys, thanks for your help and—" Lance started to say to the trio, when, in the blink of an eye, Jessie had reached into her pocket, whipped out a can of Repel, and sprayed it right into the eyes of Lance and Clair.

"Aaaaaahhh!" the two dragon trainers screamed. Lance rubbed his eyes frantically, trying to get rid of the sting, before dropping to his knees, incapacitated from the pain and loss of vision.

"Take that, flame extinguisher!" Jessie cried.

_What?! Flame extinguisher?_

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lance yelled. "Are you crazy?"

"Well, maybe you're the one who's causing the end of the world, and she's the flame extinguisher. Whatever. But it has to be you two! You're obviously strong, you survived Mt. Mortar, and you were trying to trick us into letting you get away!"

"But we're not gonna fall for it," James added. "Quick, Jessie, tie them up!"

"With what?" she shrieked. "We don't have anything! Oh, wait… Go, Arb— OUCH!"

She squealed in pain, and James shouted, "Jessie! Are you alright?"

"EEEEEP! Get it James, it's biting me! Lay off me, you stupid oversized purple alley cat!"

Lance realized that Espeon was probably defending him and Clair. _Thanks, buddy, _he thought. Suddenly, he remembered something. _Wait… did they say something about the end of the world?_

"Wait!" Lance bellowed, and he thought he heard Jessie, James, and Espeon stop struggling. "We're on your side, I swear! We heard about the end of the world, too, and that's what we were doing in Mt. Mortar— trying to stop it!"

"Oh yeah?" Jessie challenged. "And why should we believe you?"

"Wait a second, Lance," Clair said with an air of urgency. "Extinguished the flame… the flame! Like, _Ho-Oh's flame_?"

"I knew it!" barked James. "I knew you were the one!"

"No, listen!" Clair argued, and Lance thought he heard her stand up, despite the pain that surely still seared in her eyes. "Lance and I are members of the Dragon Users Clan," she explained. As an afterthought, she added, "And if you need more proof of that after seeing our pokemon, there's something seriously wrong with you."

"Alright," Jessie said impatiently, "what's your point?"

"My point is, three days ago, somebody broke into the Dragon's Den— a sacred place to our family— and killed my grandfather, the head of the Dragon Users Clan."

"Oh, umm… very sorry about that," James commented awkwardly.

_Where is she going with this? _Lance wondered. _Why is she telling them so much?_

It hit him just before she said it.

"And in the Dragon's Den," Clair continued, reaching her point, "there was a flame that was said to have been burning for one hundred and fifty years— the sacred flame of Ho-Oh. It was extinguished at the same time that my grandfather was killed."

"It's true," Lance confirmed, forcing himself to stand up alongside his cousin. "That's why we went into Mt. Mortar in the first place - to look for the scum who did it."

Lance used his cape to soak up some of the Repel from his eyes. After that, they still stung, but he was slowly able to open them. Looking over at Clair, Lance saw that her eyes were already open as well.

"Wait a minute," James said, peering at Lance suspiciously again. "I thought you said you were in the cave because you wanted to stop the world from ending."

"Well… that too!" Lance replied exasperatedly. "It's complicated. But if you give us a chance, we'll explain everything." Lance didn't want to spend any more time with these three than he absolutely had to, but he _was_ curious about how they'd known that Ho-Oh's flame had been extinguished.

Jessie and James looked at each other indecisively.

"It's getting dark," James remarked. "Eusine will be expecting us back soon."

_Eusine, _Lance thought in frustration, _where have I heard that name before? It's driving me crazy!_

"But this could be important, James," Jessie said. "They seem to know something about Ho-Oh and the end of the world!"

"Well, maybe we could invite them for dinner," James mused casually, as if Clair and Lance were not even there.

_Let me get this straight, _Lance thought in astonishment, _you two find nothing wrong with trying to steal someone's pokemon, spraying them in the eyes with a Repel, accusing them of being responsible for ending the world, and then inviting them to dinner?_

"I'm sure Eusine wouldn't mind," Meowth assured them.

"Then it's settled," Jessie chirped brightly.

Together, Jessie, James, and Meowth, asked Clair and Lance pleasantly, "Would you like to come for dinner?"

…

As night fell, Lance felt as if he was in the middle of a very strange dream. The sun had completely disappeared behind the horizon just as the group had entered Ecruteak City from Route 42, and the city looked like a town from a ghost story.

Two towers— Burned Tower, which Lance had already heard of, and another tower he had not— loomed in the distance, two tall spires shooting upwards into the darkness of the sky.

All of the houses in Ecruteak had a very old-fashioned, traditional design, including the one that Jessie, James, and Meowth led Lance and Clair to. It was built from wood, and it was covered with a large roof with heavy shingles and deep eaves. Sometime in the past, the house could have been beautiful, but, as it was now, it had lost some of its luster from enduring years of the hot summers and cold, rainy winters that all residents of Johto were familiar with.

The house, apparently, had two entrances, and the one the group approached was the one closest to the backyard, which had a sliding glass door that opened out onto a patio. Jessie, James, and Meowth approached the door nonchalantly, and Meowth tapped on the glass, calling out, "Eusine! We're back from Mt. Mortar!"

"Do you think he's already made the Loofah Lasagna?" James whispered quietly to Jessie, who widened her eyes in alarm.

"I thought it was Luffa Lasagna!" she exclaimed worriedly.

Lance groaned. _Why did we agree to this again?_

The group waited a few seconds, but nobody answered the door. Meowth tapped on the glass again, more loudly this time, but there was still no answer.

"Strange," the cat pokemon mused aloud. "He said he'd be home by suppertime."

"Well, it's not like it's the first time this has happened," James remarked.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind if we just went inside," Jessie said, shivering a little. "It's chilly out here."

Actually, she was right— the air felt considerably cooler than it had earlier that day.

"I don't know… this morning he gave us a frosty farewell," James replied.

"Ugh," Lance protested, "not again!"

To his surprise, Clair turned to him and said with a wink, "Lance, don't be so cold."

Jessie, James, and Meowth snickered, and Lance shook his head. _Some people._

James reached for the handle of the door and attempted to slide it open, but it wouldn't budge. "Locked," he reported.

"Let's try the front," Jessie suggested.

As the group made their way to the front of the house, Lance thought he saw a figure in the distance walking towards them.

"There's someone coming," Clair, who apparently noticed the person as well, said to Jessie and James. "Is that your friend?"

"I think so," James answered.

As the figure got closer, Lance was able to see that it was a man with dirty blond hair wearing a bright purple suit. As the man got closer, he evidently noticed the group standing in front of the house and started running toward them.

Lance gasped when he made out the man's face. _He looks very familiar,_ Lance thought. _The name and now the face… I _know_ I've met him before!_

The man came to a halt in front of them, smiling widely.

"Good evening, my friends!" he exclaimed. "I sincerely apologize for my lateness; if there is one thing that there isn't enough of in this world, it's punctuality."

"It's alright Eusine," Meowth replied. Gesturing to Lance and Clair, he explained, "We met these folks inside Mt. Mortar today. We think they might be able to help us."

"Ah, I see," the man acknowledged cheerfully.

He turned to Clair first, bowing his head to her, taking her hand, and kissing it lightly before saying, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Eusine, avid follower and researcher of legendary pokemon. And you are?"

Clair's face flushed, and she looked away awkwardly. It was everything Lance could do to keep from laughing; he knew his cousin had always been uncomfortable with certain social practices, but, of course, Eusine wasn't aware of that.

"Umm… Clair," she replied inelegantly. "Blackthorn City gym leader."

"Ah, a gym leader! You must be a skilled trainer indeed. _Very_ impressive," Eusine told her, smiling at her in a way Lance wasn't sure he liked.

"Thanks," Clair responded coolly.

Eusine approached Lance next, still smiling. However, when the two first met eyes, Lance thought he saw a flicker of recognition, and Eusine's grin seemed to waver just a little.

"Welcome to my home," the man said cordially, recovering quickly. "I am Eusine, and it is delightful to meet you. What is your name?"

Suddenly, Lance remembered why the man looked so familiar— Lance had faced Eusine before at Indigo Plateau, back when he'd been champion! _That was nearly fifteen years ago, _Lance thought. _I'd think it was amazing I even remembered him at all, but I wouldn't forget a battle like that…_

Eusine had lost to Lance, but just barely. As Lance recalled, the majority of trainers who challenged the Elite Four lost to the very first trainer (Will), making them ineligible to face Lance or any of the other trainers preceding him. About a quarter made it past Will, moving on to battle Koga and Bruno, but Karen defeated almost everyone she battled. _She was a good Anchor, _Lance remembered with admiration.

But Eusine had conquered them all, even without being allowed to heal his pokemon at the Pokemon Center between battles. Lance remembered that Karen, right before their battle, had told him, "Be careful, Lance. This guy's strategy sneaks up on you." Lance had taken Karen's comment to heart, but it had still been a difficult match to win. Dragonite, Lance's most powerful pokemon, had been hanging on by a thread at the very end, if he recalled correctly.

"Eusine," Lance said, surprised that the man did not remember him. _Unless…_ "I am Lance, dragon master and former champion. I believe we have met before."

Eusine's blue eyes flashed, and he seemed panicked for a moment. _What's with this guy? _Lance wondered. _It almost seems like he's trying to keep his Elite Four challenge a secret…_

Again, recovering hastily, Eusine replied, "Funny. I don't think we have. You must be confusing me with someone else."

_I don't think so, _Lance thought to himself, though he decided not to press the issue. _But I will figure this out eventually, Eusine._

Speedily ending his exchange with Lance, Eusine clapped his hands together and suggested, "Let's go inside and have some dinner, shall we? I got my lasagna all ready this morning, so now I just need to pop it in the oven!"

Jessie and James exchanged uneasy looks and replied halfheartedly, "Great."

A few minutes later, Lance, Clair, Jessie, James, Meowth, and Eusine sat around a long table with heaping plates of Luffa Lasagna in front of them. The pale green hue of the dish was rather dispiriting, but it smelled decent and was piping hot, and Lance was starving. _Hunger is the best sauce, I suppose, _he thought, though his first forkful appeared a little stringier than he would have liked. _Reminds me of cucumber, _he decided as he took his first bite.

"Umm… thanks for dinner, Eusine," Clair said awkwardly, prodding her lasagna with her fork as if testing to see if it was alive.

Eusine waved his gloved hand dismissively. "It was no trouble at all," he assured her as he took a bite, relishing it.

Lance had had enough small talk with Jessie and James earlier, so he decided to skip straight to the important matters.

"So… Jessie, James," Lance began, "earlier, you mentioned Ho-Oh's flame. How did you know it had been extinguished?"

"That's easy," Meowth replied casually (Lance still had to get used to addressing the pokemon like he would a human), "Ho-Oh told us itself."

"_What?!_" Lance exclaimed. Meowth couldn't be serious!

"I knew it," Clair declared. "Legendary pokemon _do _exist! If Ho-Oh exists, then why not Lugia?"

Eusine perked up, looking at her interestedly. "Lugia?" he inquired.

"Yes," Clair confirmed. "Someone told me the other day that Lugia might be responsible for the storms that are happening near Mahogany Town." Once again, she reached for the Silver Wing that hung around her neck, grasping it tightly.

"But I thought a _human_ was responsible for that," James said confusedly.

"Wait a minute!" Lance objected. "Can we just backtrack a little to the part where you said _you met Ho-Oh_?"

"Like I said, it was easy," Meowth repeated. "We just borrowed the Rainbow Wing from our friend Eusine here, marched up to the top of Tin Tower, and there it was."

Jessie, joining the conversation, frowned distastefully and said, "Not that it was all that pleasant— that birdbrain needs to learn to control its temper if you ask me."

James and Meowth glanced at each other, raising their eyebrows.

Eusine cleared his throat. "Ehem… finding Ho-Oh was _not _easy; if you recall, a lot of hard work and preparation went into summoning it. Attracting a legendary pokemon is a mysterious, complex process."

"That's right," Meowth said casually. "You have to burn herbs, too. Not so bad."

Jessie snarled at him, "_You_ weren't the one out there in the fields picking them for three days!"

Meowth sighed. "What can I say? These paws are just not cut out for manual labor." He held out his claws as if examining them for imperfections.

Jessie, even more infuriated, growled, "Why, you lazy—"

"Guys," James interrupted timidly, "we have company…" However, the other two seemed oblivious to his objections.

"What else do you know about Lugia?" Eusine asked Clair across the table, ignoring Jessie and Meowth as they squabbled.

"Well, this man— the director of Goldenrod's Radio Tower, I guess— told us that the storms might be happening because Lugia is 'unsettled'. He also gave me this." She untied the twine she'd used to make the Silver Wing into a necklace, removing it from her neck, and holding it up so that Eusine could get a good look at it.

Eusine gasped in shock. "That's… a Silver Wing! I have searched for one for many years, but I have never even seen one until now."

Clair offered it to him, and he took it gladly, taking a few moments to admire its luster and fine detail. "Incredible," he breathed before, albeit reluctantly, handing it back to Clair.

"I think the Director also implied that if a powerful, worthy trainer met Lugia and calmed it down, the storms might end, and the world's balance would be restored," Clair said.

Lance was a little worried about this exchange; he didn't completely trust Eusine, and Clair might be telling him more than he needed to know.

"That's funny," James said. Lance hadn't been aware the man was listening, and he turned to face him. "Raikou and Ho-Oh both said that the source of the imbalance was a human."

"You met _Raikou_, too?" Lance questioned incredulously, and James nodded casually. _Why on earth would two different legendary pokemon reveal themselves to _these _people? _Lance wondered, mystified.

"That's true," Eusine acknowledged, looking puzzled. "It is perplexing. But I have heard legends that refer to Lugia as the keeper of storms. I think, given the current state of affairs, it would be wise to pursue it as well."

Lance shook his head, dumfounded. He hadn't even truly believed in legendary pokemon until today, and now the names of three different legendaries were being tossed around like horseshoes. And somehow, Lance got the impression that Jessie, James, and Meowth, as odd as they were, were being honest about having met Ho-Oh. How else would they have known about its flame being extinguished? They couldn't have been the ones to break into the Dragon's Den; judging by their behavior today, they obviously weren't experienced at navigating through caves, and they would have to have made it through at least two of them (three, if they took the path through Mt. Mortar) to reach the Dragon Shrine. Also, from his battle with him years ago, Lance knew that Eusine was no fool, and he doubted he'd lie about meeting Ho-Oh.

"Let's do it," Clair said determinedly to Lance and Eusine. "Let's find Lugia and see if it's really what's causing these storms. We don't have a lot of time, and, since Eusine's heard of the legend, too, I think it's worth a try."

"Lugia is said to reside in the Whirl Islands, in the ocean near Cianwood City," Eusine told them. "If you choose to travel there, your journey will be trying, and you may become lost without a guide."

Clair nodded somberly in response.

"But," Eusine added, brightening a little, "I have explored the Whirl Islands many times, and I own a very detailed map of the area. Perhaps, if you allow me to join you, we could reach Lugia together."

James appeared troubled and, facing Eusine, argued, "You said yourself that 'legendary pokemon never lead humans astray'. That means a human has to be involved with this somehow!" James paused for a moment contemplatively. "Now that I think of it," he said, "I think I have an idea of who it could be."

Jessie and Meowth, who had stopped arguing, but continued to glare bitterly at each other, turned back to James and asked together, "Who?"

James swallowed, looking anxious. "Well… The Boss."

"The _Boss_?" Jessie and Meowth inquired.

"The Boss?" Eusine asked interestedly.

"The Boss," Lance said under his breath, thinking to himself. _Those two did say they used to work for Team Rocket earlier, _Lance remembered. _I'd thought they couldn't be serious, but maybe that's what they mean by 'The Boss'._

"Think about it," James continued. "The Boss was always on the hunt for rare, powerful pokemon. I know it's unlikely, but what if he found a legendary pokemon and tried to capture it for Team Rocket… uh, Rocket Inc.?"

Meowth and Jessie appeared to consider his statement.

"Well, being a pokemon, I know I'd be pretty upset," Meowth mused.

"And The Boss wouldn't care at all if the world was out of balance," Jessie added. "As long as his budget is balanced, he's happy."

"Wait a minute," Clair said, peering at Jessie and James warily. "You guys really used to work for Rocket Inc.? We've met them, and they didn't seem very trustworthy to us. Why should we trust you?"

Eusine looked shocked. "Mr. Cat, you used to work for Rocket, Inc.?"

The trio sighed.

"We worked for Team Rocket a long time ago, when it was just getting on its feet," Jessie explained.

"And when we quit, we left some pretty big shoes to fill…" Jessie started, but Clair and Lance yelled together, "KNOCK IT OFF!"

"Anyway, we left right after they went corporate," Meowth said. "Office life isn't really my cup of tea…"

"And some of the things The Boss wanted us to do really left a bitter taste in my mouth," James added.

"Needless to say, we've abandoned that phase of our lives, and moved on to newer, sweeter pursuits," Jessie said. She paused for a moment, then remarked, "Well… newer, anyway."

Normally, the fact that these three had worked for Team Rocket would deeply bother Lance. However, at this moment, he realized that their questionable past could work to his advantage. _If there's any human that could upset the balance of the world, _Lance thought, _it's the CEO of Rocket Inc. _He remembered what Kiyo, the Karate King had told him while they had been inside Mt. Mortar— that if people didn't obey Rocket Inc.'s rules, the corporation would just take their pokemon away. And Lance was starting to believe that maybe the S.S. Anne, the ship that transported passengers from Kanto to Johto and back, wasn't just down because of ship repairs. _Maybe they don't want anyone getting out, _he considered, shuddering.

"I think James has a point," Lance announced, evidently surprising everyone at the table.

"I do?" James questioned anxiously.

"Yes," Lance confirmed. "This 'Boss' sounds like he's bad news. Maybe he even has something to do with the imbalance in the world. We don't know now, but you three are exactly the people who could find out."

"We are?" they chorused.

"I think," Lance suggested, "you should pay your ex-boss a friendly visit."


	10. 09

**Important Author's Note:  
**

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. I'm sorry that I have not been prompt with all of my responses; I really needed a break from FFN. This chapter is very short, but the next one will be longer.

I have decided to take a break from writing "Resistance". I was getting very stressed over it and running out of time in which to do other things. I do plan to finish it, but probably not until spring (April ish?) because I am going back to college in a week and probably won't have much time to work on "Resistance" until my next break. Anyway, I have written about 50,000 words ahead of what I'm posting now, so you guys will still get updates for a while. I'm going to space out the updates a little more, though - updates will now be posted **every Friday morning **until further notice. So, anyway, expect a "mid-season finale" after a few weeks. I currently have sixteen completed chapters (and I will finish chapter 17, which is almost done, before I take my break), and this is only the ninth chapter, so it will be a while.

Again, thanks for all your support! I assure you I will not be gone forever. I am too addicted to Pokemon and FFN for that. ;)

~TheFrogFromHell

**09**

Domino, her husband, and their son, Silver, who sat in his highchair, were gathered around their dining room table for an elegant, yet painfully uncomfortable, dinner together.

Domino knew that, deep down, her husband felt guilty for their heated argument the day before, but the man simply had too much pride to apologize to her. It had been like that since the beginning of their marriage; Giovanni had always cared about his own image more than he cared about Domino's feelings. _Of course, I suppose that was our dynamic even long before we were married, _she thought regretfully, remembering their past exchanges during Team Rocket missions and Rocket, Inc. projects.

Their butler, Jerome, entered the room with a platter of appetizers and a bottle of fine wine. He placed the steaming plate of hors d'oeuvres (bleu cheese-stuffed crimini mushrooms) in the center of the long, polished, wooden table.

"This is a 2001 merlot, from Olivine Vineyards," Jerome explained as he began opening the bottle of wine. "One of their finest vintages, in my humble opinion. Will it be suitable for tonight's meal?"

Domino glared at her husband, who sat across from her, staring passively at a painting on the wall as if it was below him to acknowledge her existence.

"Can you bring something stronger?" she inquired darkly.

"Um," the butler began uncomfortably, "certainly; I believe we have a bottle of excellent brandy just waiting to be—"

"That won't be necessary, Jerome," Giovanni said firmly. "This is all we require."

Jerome poured the dark red wine into two delicate goblets, placing them in front of Domino and Giovanni. When he was finished, he bowed and informed them, "I shall return with the first course in a few minutes."

"Thank you, Jerome," Giovanni replied evenly as the butler left the room.

The dark, Italian CEO turned to his wife and sighed deeply, expressing his displeasure regarding Domino's exchange with the butler.

"Domino, you must learn to control your indulgent habits," he remarked disgustedly.

She said nothing, instead continuing to gaze upon her husband with an expression of deep contempt.

Apparently unaffected, the man took a sip of his wine and reached for a stuffed mushroom, plucking it off the tray with his thick fingers and popping it into his mouth.

"Mmm," he commented in satisfaction, smacking his lips together. Swallowing, he said, "These are cooked excellently. Sometimes, I find mushrooms to be too chewy, sliding around in my mouth like a magikarp out of water, but tonight, they are perfect. Try one, Domino."

If anyone else had uttered the same words, Domino would have considered the phrase to be an innocent suggestion. However, Giovanni rarely said anything without a motive, and Domino could see the game he was trying to play with her immediately.

"I'm not hungry," she declined curtly.

Silver squirmed in his high chair, whimpering uncomfortably.

"Really?" Giovanni challenged, smirking at Domino. "I haven't seen you eat anything at all today. You must be ravenous. Eat!"

"I'm saving room for the main course," she reasoned, unwavering.

"It's a pity," the man said, taking another sip of his wine, leering at her threateningly as he did so. "I suppose I'll have to fire the chef, since my wife finds his cuisine so unsavory."

Domino thought about Julian, their live-in chef of five years, who she'd always found to be very talented, professional, and pleasant.

"You wouldn't," she stated, though something inside her assured her he would.

"Why not?" Giovanni inquired in mock-surprise. "Your satisfaction is worth the loss of an employee."

Domino felt her face grow hot with fury. Impulsively, she snatched a huge handful of stuffed mushrooms off the tray, shoving them into her mouth and chewing sloppily.

Silver, as if somehow sensing his mother's distress, burst into tears and began wailing stridently.

"They're great," Domino tried to yell over the noise, though it was difficult with her mouth full. "I love them."

Giovanni clicked his tongue at her disapprovingly. "Manners, dear," he said, and, to Domino's horror, Jerome entered the room.

She covered her mouth embarrassedly, looking away. However, the butler had not brought the main course, as she had expected.

"Master Sorrentino, you have a phone call," Jerome said, and Domino noticed he'd brought the phone in with him. "Ordinarily I would not interrupt you during your meal, but this sounds especially important."

Giovanni wiped his fingers on his napkin, reaching for the telephone.

"Who is it?" he inquired.

"No one I've spoken to before," the butler remarked, handing the cordless phone to him. "He said his name is 'James' something."

Giovanni appeared perplexed. "James?" he questioned, holding the telephone to his ear. "Hello? Yes, this is Giovanni."

_James? _Domino thought, just as confused as her husband appeared to be. _That can't be the James I know; he left Team Rocket over fifteen years ago!_ _It has to be someone else._

Domino reached for her son, who was still crying in his highchair. She hoisted him up and placed him in her lap, stroking his face and smoothing his tiny tufts of red hair to calm him. The baby's cries slowly transformed into quiet whimpers, and then he was silent.

"I see," Domino heard Giovanni say into the phone from across the table. "Well, this is very unexpected. I must say… I am speechless."

_What's going on? _Domino wondered; her husband rarely sounded so flabbergasted.

Silver cooed in his mother's arms, and she turned back to him, smiling.

Softly, she began to rock him in her arms and sing him a song that she often sang for him. It was a tune she remembered from when she was a child.

"_Silver and gold, silver and gold… ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold…_"

Suddenly, Domino felt very sad, but she managed to hold back her tears, concealing her surfacing emotions from her husband.

"_How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth_…"

"Keep it down!" Giovanni demanded angrily, making Domino flinch. Once again, Silver started crying, and Domino glared at her husband as she tried to calm her son down yet again.

"Perhaps we should arrange a meeting," Giovanni said to this "James" he was apparently speaking to. "When are you available? Uh-huh… yes, yes… very well. Tomorrow night is suitable."

_This _must _be_ _important, _Domino realized. _Usually people have to wait weeks for a meeting with Giovanni!_

"Will Jessie and Meowth be joining us as well?"

Domino's jaw dropped. _Those three?! _she thought, unable to believe her ears. _Those useless, untalented, bumbling fools? My husband is having a meeting with _them_?_

"Of course. We can talk over dinner at my estate in Goldenrod City. No, I do still live in Viridian— it is my second home. You can meet my wife, Domino… actually, now that I think of it, you may already be acquainted."

Domino snorted. "Damn right, we're 'acquainted'," she growled under her breath. _I can't _believe _this_… _Why on Earth would my husband agree to have dinner with Jessie and James?_

"Yes... I will see you tomorrow… Thank you. Goodbye."

Giovanni hung up the phone, placing it on the table next to his wineglass. Domino removed Silver from her lap, propping him up in his highchair.

"What was _that_?" Domino asked her husband incredulously.

Giovanni picked up his glass again, sipping his wine nonchalantly.

"Nothing you should be concerned about," he replied casually.

"Well, apparently you invited those idiots into my home, and that's something I'm definitely concerned about!" Domino shot back. Silver squirmed in displeasure.

Jerome appeared again, carrying two large plates of food in and placing them in front of Giovanni and Domino.

"The first course," he said. "A decadent cioppino with fresh lobster."

"Thank you, Jerome," Giovanni responded, picking up his napkin and tying it around his neck. Domino just sulked, waiting for the interruption to be over.

After Jerome left, Domino demanded, "I know that, for whatever reason, you don't like to tell me anything anymore, but this requires an explanation! When those three quit, you were livid! You said you never wanted to speak to them again. Have you forgotten about that?"

"No," he replied, picking up his soup spoon and stirring his cioppino, which was steaming hot.

"'_No_?!' All you're going to say is 'No'?!"

Raising his voice, Giovanni retaliated gravely, "I'll invite whoever I please for dinner. Learn to stay out of matters that are none of your business."

Enraged, Domino stood up from the table, shoved her seat back into its place (spilling some of her uneaten cioppino in the process), and stomped out of the dining room. _I know I'll have hell to pay for this later, _she thought, _but I can't stand him for even one more second._

She heard Silver bawling again and considered going back for him, but then, she thought bitterly, _Let my husband care for his own son for once in his life._

Fuming, she made her way to the conservatory, where she knew it would be spacious, calm, and silent. There was an enormous, round, glass window across from the heavy door she entered through, and the dim moonlight streaming in was all that illuminated the large room. Outside, she noticed that the storm clouds she'd seen in the distance that morning were closing in, which was unnerving.

She carefully walked down the shallow marble steps leading down into the room and went over to the impressive grand piano that stood in the center of it.

Its glossy, black finish gleamed in the moonlight, and its keys were so white they almost seemed to glow. Domino took a seat at the bench and placed her fingers on the rectangular slabs of ivory, enjoying how soothingly cool they felt to the touch.

Timidly, Domino began to play, first with just her right hand, making playful tinkling sounds with the keys of the upper registers.

Until she'd moved in with Giovanni, she'd never played the piano, except for a few lessons she'd had when she was a teenager. Her teacher, she recalled, had told her she had talent, but she'd been more interested in other things, like shopping and boys, and hadn't continued with playing. However, now, since Domino had little to do each day besides caring for Silver, she often ventured to the conservatory to tinker with Giovanni's mother's old grand piano.

Slowly, Domino introduced another layer into what she was playing, adding long, low tones with her left hand and giving the piece an air of mystery.

Then, almost as if she was possessed, the piece gripped her, and the music exploded into wild, long runs of notes. Her right and left hands seemed to be battling with one another, creating two distinct "voices"— the low, intense, driving rhythm of her left hand, and the high, indecisive, erratic chiming of her right.

The music escalated, in both volume and in complexity, and Domino felt her heart begin to race; something about the intensity of her playing was exhilarating to her.

Suddenly, a shadow darkened the luminous white keys, and Domino allowed her eye gaze to drift upward from the piano. She gasped when she saw something so startling that she abruptly stopped playing.

It was the silhouette of a pokemon, and an enormous one at that. It stood on four legs, appeared to have thick fur covering its body, and, on its back, there were unidentifiable, rigid structures that jutted out like wings. In the dark, she couldn't make out the pokemon's face, but she could see that it had two red, glowing eyes.

_...What?_

Domino was especially alarmed when she noticed that the pokemon was not outside the window, as she'd originally thought; it had somehow entered the conservatory and stood just a few feet away from her. _How could it have gotten in without anyone noticing it? _she wondered fearfully.

"Please don't hurt me," Domino pleaded. "I won't try to capture you, I promise. Just go back to your, um, pokemon friends outside."

Shockingly, the pokemon didn't appear to move at all, but Domino heard in her mind,

**You**.

"What?" she exclaimed aloud, her voice wavering in terror. "Is that _you _doing that?" She knew that some pokemon could communicate through telepathy, but those were all psychic pokemon, and this pokemon was like no type she'd ever seen before.

**It is you.**

"What do you mean 'it is me'?" she questioned, standing up from the piano and slowly backing away.

**I still do not know… but your aura tells me that you are not supposed to be here.**

Unable to control herself, Domino burst in to tears. _Why am I reacting this way? _she thought in frustration.

**I must inform Suicune and Raikou, and the others, of your existence, **the pokemon communicated.

"_What?!_" she asked in disbelief, "What are you talking about? Those are legendary pokemon… they don't exist!"

The pokemon's eyes seemed to bore into Domino's soul, and once again, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

**If what I am sensing is correct, **the pokemon projected, **then neither should you.**

Domino opened her mouth to respond, but, in the blink of an eye, the pokemon had disappeared. _Where could it have gone to so fast? _she wondered in disbelief. _And what did it mean, telling me I shouldn't exist?_


	11. 0A

**0A**

"There's the lighthouse!" Lance yelled from behind Clair. "Looks like it's time to land!"

Lance's dragon pokemon - two dragonites and Aerodactyl - who carried Clair, Lance, and Eusine respectively, slowly descended downward toward the edge of Olivine City, landing softly on the sandy ground.

The night before at Eusine's house, the group had decided that Jessie and James were going to attempt to collect information on their ex-boss, the CEO of Rocket, Inc., while Clair, Lance, and Eusine would go to the Whirl Islands to search for Lugia.

"Thanks again, team," Lance said to his pokemon. "Remind me to buy you some high quality radishes one of these days."

The three dragons cried out excitedly, the two dragonite wagging their thick orange tails, and Aerodactyl performing an impressive backflip.

Clair laughed; dragon pokemon seemed to have a strange affinity for radishes that nobody ever seemed to notice but her and Lance.

"You should have spoken up about that before," Eusine said. "I've got a whole bunch of radishes growing in my garden! I usually use them to make my acclaimed Cream of Radish Soup!"

"Maybe when we get back," Lance said.

Clair's stomach growled loudly, and Lance and Eusine both turned to look at her.

"I guess I'm pretty hungry," she admitted embarrassedly, "and I think I'm gonna need more than radishes to curb my appetite."

"What about that place over there?" Lance suggested, pointing to a small building resembling a shack standing on the opposite side of the road. A sign hanging above the building's entrance read, "Olivine Café" in letters made out of driftwood.

Just then, a couple of beefy sailors exited the café, having an intense conversation about lures and muscles (or, perhaps, mussels— Clair was unsure).

"Looks like they sell some hearty fare there," Lance observed hungrily. "I could go for a burger."

Clair's mouth watered. "Me too," she agreed enthusiastically.

"That sounds… err… well, do you think they have anything vegetarian? I have a rather delicate system…" Eusine added uncertainly.

"Well, I don't see anywhere else to eat, so if they don't, you're out of luck," Lance replied, already headed toward the café. "You can have my tomato."

Clair looked at Eusine apologetically. _Does Lance really have to be so harsh? The guy did let us stay at his house last night…_

For some reason, Clair had gotten the impression that Lance wasn't very fond of the legendary pokemon researcher. He was constantly giving him these weird looks and brushing him off. Eusine _was_ strange; even Clair could admit that, but she didn't think the man deserved Lance being a jerk to him.

"They probably have a salad or something on their menu," Clair assured Eusine as the two began crossing the street to join her cousin.

It turned out that the place did sell a salad — a deep fried salad, which Eusine wasn't too keen on.

The place was _packed _with sailors, and Clair figured the restaurant probably catered to its most frequent clientele.

Eusine, Clair, and Lance sat at the bar, since it was the only place available, and studied their menus.

"I already knew what I wanted when I walked in," Lance declared, slapping his menu down on the table.

"Me too," Clair said, following suit.

"Umm…" Eusine anxiously flipped through the pages, grimacing at some of the menu's greasy options.

Just then, their waitress approached. She was small and cute, with bright pink pigtails on either side of her head, wearing a blue and white sailor's outfit that Clair figured was the restaurant's uniform.

"Are you three ready?" the waitress asked sweetly.

"Yes," Clair and Lance answered immediately.

"Umm… hold on…" Eusine said anxiously, still flipping through the menu's pages.

"I'll have a cheeseburger with french-fries and extra onion," Lance pronounced.

"Me too," Clair said, "but I'd like extra lettuce and tomato, and no onion."

"Okay," the waitress chirped, writing it all down on her notepad. Turning to Eusine, she inquired, "And for you, sir?"

Eusine sighed and replied, "I'll just have a veggie burger with no bun, no mustard, no ketchup, no mayo, and extra lettuce and tomato."

"We can do that," the waitress responded kindly. "I'll have that out for you in no time!"

Lance raised an eyebrow at Clair, but she ignored him. _Everyone's entitled to their dietary quirks, _she thought.

"So… Eusine," Lance asked him, "what made you decide to become a vegetarian?"

"Well…" he began hesitantly, "it's… complicated. You two probably wouldn't want to hear the whole story."

"Are you alright, Eusine? You look a little pale," Clair asked concernedly.

"Err… no, actually… I am feeling a bit queasy. I'm going to the restroom… I shall return shortly."

"O… kay," Clair said, bewildered as their acquaintance hurried off.

"Really strange fellow," Lance remarked, shaking his head.

Clair glared at him. "Better to be strange than to be a jerk," she countered crossly. "What's with you, Lance?"

"I don't trust that guy, that's what's 'with me'," Lance replied equally as irritably. He glanced around the restaurant for a moment as if checking to see if Eusine was anywhere nearby. "I'm telling you, he's not who he seems to be," he said, lowering his voice. "Clair… I've met him before. He challenged the Elite Four while I was Champion."

That surprised Clair, but not very much. _Lots of people challenge the Elite Four, _she knew, _but very few of them actually do well._

"So what?" Clair asked nonchalantly. "Everyone and their cousin challenges the Elite Four. Unless, of course, their cousin is the Champion, and the person beats all the other Plateau trainers but fails against her cousin…"

"Hypothetically," Lance added, unable to stop a tiny smirk from appearing on his face. Then, more seriously, he continued, "But that's the thing— Eusine did too."

"What? Lost?"

"Yes… but, specifically, he lost to _me_."

Clair gaped. Now, _this_ was something unexpected. "You mean… he actually defeated Will and Karen and the others?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah. And he's been all secretive about it, not even telling you and those weirdos that he'd met me before. It's like he's ashamed he lost to me or something…"

"Are you sure that's it?" Clair inquired, "I mean, maybe there's some other reason…"

"Possibly," Lance acknowledged, "but either way, I don't trust people who try to conceal the truth, whatever their reasoning is."

Just then, the pink-haired waitress returned, setting the burgers down in front of Clair and Lance, and Eusine's veggie burger in front of where he'd been sitting.

Lance thanked her briefly before digging in.

"Wow," Clair commented, "fast service."

Lance, fully absorbed in his burger, only acknowledged her comment with a grunt, but the sailor sitting next to Clair turned to her and said, "The service has been much better ever since they fired these two goons that used to work here. They were somethin' else… every day wreckin' orders like crew ships. I have to say, though… they were mighty entertaining. Almost like a couple of comics."

Clair laughed. "They wouldn't happen to be named Jessie and James, would they?"

The man widened his eyes. "How did you—"

"Sorry to take so long," said Eusine apologetically as he took his seat between Clair and the sailor, to whom he gave a polite nod. He slid his plate towards himself and frowned discontentedly. When the waitress passed by again behind him, he asked, "May I request some napkins, and a fork and knife?"

"Certainly," the waitress replied, darting around the side of the bar and back into the kitchen.

"So, Eusine," Clair began, attempting to sound casual, "Lance told me you defeated the Elite Four. That's very impressive."

Lance almost choked on his latest bite of cheeseburger, looking at Clair with a horrified expression on his face.

Eusine froze for a moment, his eyes fixed on his plate and his shoulders rigid. The waitress returned with his fork, knife, and napkins, setting them down on the bar for him, and he replied quietly, "Thank you."

Turning back to Clair, he cleared his throat and said, "Yes, well… it was so long ago I'd nearly forgotten! Since then, I have moved on to other things. I still train casually, but I am truly not cut out to become Champion. I prefer seeking legendary pokemon these days, as you two have probably noticed."

"I don't know, Eusine," Lance said, and, from his tone, Clair gathered he was speaking genuinely, "you almost had me that day at Indigo Plateau. If I'm remembering right, it was so close that just one attack could have made the difference. You very well could have been crowned Champion that day."

"Yes," Eusine replied, and Clair thought she detected just a hint of bitterness in his voice when he added, "but I wasn't."

…

After they'd finished eating and paid, Clair, Lance, and Eusine exited the Olivine Café, ready to begin their expedition to the Whirl Islands. Since Eusine didn't own a pokemon that could Surf, it was decided that Clair and Eusine would share Kingdra, while Lance Surfed on Gyarados.

"The water looks rough today," Lance observed. "It's going to be a bumpy ride."

"Typical for the Whirl Islands," Eusine remarked. "I'd be surprised if it _wasn't_ rough, actually."

"How long will it take to reach the islands?" Clair asked.

"If we start now… at least an hour, but probably longer," Eusine answered.

"Well, then let's start now," Lance said resolutely. "We're running out of time to find Lugia."

"Agreed," Clair concurred, "let's go."

Clair and Lance released their dragon pokemon, Lance hopping onto Gyarados's back expertly, while Clair mounted Kingdra and then helped Eusine to climb on behind her.

As soon as they got out on the water, the icy wind seemed to cut into Clair's skin like a thousand tiny, freezing razor blades. Everything was shrouded in a thick fog, which made it difficult to see what was ahead. The farther out they got, the more wild the ocean's waves became, and Clair quickly concluded that she wasn't going to make it to the Whirl Islands with any part of her hair or clothing dry.

Clair didn't spot any swimmers or even any ships, leading her to believe that the conditions were, in fact, considerably worse than usual. _This is miserable, _she thought, cringing as another large wave splashed up, spilling ice-cold water into her lap.

"Just continue straight ahead," Eusine told her. "Soon, we should see the Whirl Islands in the distance."

"What's that?" Lance called out from behind them. It was difficult to make out what he was saying over the howl of the strong wind.

Clair looked forward to where he was pointing. At first, all she could see was waves, but then she saw something _move_, in a decidedly un-wavelike fashion. _What _is _that? _she thought in alarm, but then she noticed a telling detail— tentacles protruding from the surface of the water.

"It looks like a whole swarm of tentacool," she relayed to Lance.

"No problem," he yelled back, "we'll just bypass 'em."

"Not so fast," Eusine interjected, "look!"

Now that they had drawn closer, Clair was able to get a better look. She gasped as she noticed the tentacool moving away from each other, forming an almost-perfect circle in the water. Then, from the center, a huge, slimy, translucent form rose up — a massive tentacruel!

"That's a problem," Clair heard Lance comment.

The group of pokemon slowly crept toward them, flailing their tentacles and screeching menacingly.

"I believe they are upset with us for interrupting their evolution ritual," Eusine explained. Clair knew she needed to act fast; tentacruel stings were no joke in general, and one from a tentacruel this large might send a human to the intensive care unit of the hospital.

"Kingdra, Hyper Beam, now! Aim straight for the tentacruel, and don't miss!" Clair ordered. Turning to Eusine, she yelled, "Brace yourself!" and the two of them held on tightly as Kingdra let loose an impressive Hyper Beam, so forceful and fast that it blasted Tentacruel out of the water. The aquatic pokemon let out a distressed screech as it flew through the air, making a sickening smacking noise when it hit the surface of the water fifty feet away.

"Let's get out of here quickly," Clair instructed Kingdra hurriedly, "before they come back!"

The dragon obeyed, zooming forward at an incredible speed. Clair glanced over her shoulder to see her cousin close behind. Eusine seemed to be holding up fine as well, other than being as freezing and soaking wet as Clair was.

She breathed a sigh of relief when, in the distance, four islands became visible, as Eusine had predicted they would. _Not too much farther, _she thought with anticipation. However, the water ahead appeared especially rough, and the islands did not look all that easy to get up onto. Clair could see jagged rocks protruding from their edges, and there were surely many more hiding beneath the crashing waves.

"The easiest access point is not far from here," Eusine told Clair, "but to get to it, we must Surf around the side of the island on the left, where the waves are particularly wild. We need to be careful."

"I understand," Clair affirmed, readying herself for an unpleasant and arduous leg of their journey.

They approached cautiously, and Clair was finding it harder and harder to steady herself as the waves tossed her this way and that. It was a delicate balance between remaining close to the side of the island, but not so close that the waves could thrust Clair, Lance, Eusine, and their pokemon right into a deathtrap of sharp rocks at any moment.

Slowly and tediously, they curved around to the opposite side of the island, where Clair spotted the access point Eusine had been referring to. There was a small area of the island's edge where the layer of rock was thinner and smoother, and the slope going down to the water was a bit shallower.

"There?" she pointed out questioningly, and Eusine confirmed with a nod.

"CLAIR!" Lance shouted at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly, Clair noticed a huge wave approaching, catching her off guard. Before she had time to react, it had crashed over her and Eusine, its current lifting them off Kingdra's back and tossing them in opposite directions in the ocean.

Clair's entire body was freezing, all of her nerve endings screaming as the ice-cold water engulfed her. A few feet under the surface, she treaded water frantically, desperately trying to swim upwards for air. It seemed that the water's waves were fighting to keep her under, attempting to strangle her with their weight and pressure.

She finally reached the surface, opening her mouth to breath, but she sputtered as she inhaled a mouthful of salty water instead. _Where are the others?_ she wondered, since all she saw were waves. Still coughing from the water, she was able to inhale a little oxygen through her nose, but she knew she couldn't keep this up for long.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back, pulling her in one direction by her Dragon Master's cape. She looked over her shoulder to see who it was, but her face was splattered with another wave of icy water. She blinked rapidly in discomfort, but when she was able to see, she realized it was Eusine, guiding her back to Kingdra.

"Look out!" she yelled fearfully as she saw another wave approaching behind Eusine. Rather than attempting to remain on the surface, he grabbed Clair, holding her tightly, and the two ducked under water, softening the blow of the wave. _Good idea, _Clair thought. When the water above them had calmed again, she and Eusine swam back up to the surface, where Kingdra was waiting.

The pokemon happily greeted its trainer, obviously relieved that she was alright.

"Sorry, Kingdra," Clair said apologetically. "I guess we're not used to such rough water — it's always calm next to the Dragon's Den at home."

Eusine took his place behind Clair, still gasping for air and shuddering from the cold.

"Thank you, Eusine," Clair told him earnestly. "For a minute there, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it." Realizing that Eusine had probably saved her life just then, Clair felt guilty for talking about him behind his back with Lance earlier.

"What else was I to do?" the man questioned, smiling at her. "I'd never leave a friend battling the ocean's harsh waves without coming to her aid."

Clair was still grateful, but, as she looked around, she realized something concerning— she couldn't see her cousin anywhere.

"Where is Lance?" she asked Eusine anxiously.

"I don't know," he replied. "He was separated from us."

_Oh no,_ Clair thought fretfully, eyeing some jagged rocks jutting out from the island's coast.

Abruptly, something enormous began to emerge from the water, and Clair sighed in relief when she realized it was the head of a gyarados.

Soon, Lance's form became visible on Gyarados's back, and Clair urged Kingdra to rush over to him.

"Lance, don't you ever disappear like that again!" Clair told him crossly.

"Well, when I saw that huge wave was on its way, Gyarados and I dove under the water, clinging to the ocean's floor," he explained. "The waves are less severe when you're under the surface."

"Yeah, I noticed that… after a while," she commented a little sulkily.

"Sorry to interrupt," Eusine interjected, "but it appears that the water is calmer, for the moment. Let's climb onto the island while we still have the chance."

Cautiously, Kingdra and Gyarados approached the sloping edge of the island. When the water was shallow enough, Clair, Lance, and Eusine dismounted the pokemon. After being completely submerged, waist-deep ice-cold water no longer felt so shocking to Clair.

However, she was still immensely relieved when she felt her feet on the hard, dry ground of the island.

"You were awesome, Kingdra," she said to her pokemon sincerely. "I know it was a tough ride, but we stuck it out. Take a rest."

"You were great, too, Gyarados," Lance told his dragon.

The two recalled their pokemon to their balls, and, with Eusine, they turned around to examine the topography of the island. Ahead, there appeared to be a large cave with a sandy floor and a gaping mouth. Clair rolled her eyes. _Great, _she thought, another_ cave._

"The Whirl Islands are really an intricate series of tunnels, many of them underground," Eusine explained. "The islands are interconnected by these tunnels, joined together. Therefore, Lugia could be inside any one of Whirl Island's caves— it moves from island to island as it pleases."

If she hadn't been so cold, miserable, and already exhausted, Clair would have found the islands' geography to be quite interesting. _Well, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy, _she admitted reluctantly.

"Something does concern me, however," Eusine remarked, and Lance frowned and turned to him.

"What is it?" he asked worriedly. "And please don't tell me it involves tentacruel or ten-foot-tall waves."

"No," Eusine replied, "but the water level is higher here than it usually is, and that might make some of the tunnels inaccessible."

Clair sighed exasperatedly. _That's disconcerting. We came all this way, and we still might not be able to find Lugia._

"What do you suggest we do?" she asked disappointedly.

"Well, as I told you before, I'm quite familiar with these islands," Eusine answered, brightening. "I could travel ahead for a while, just to survey the tunnels' conditions, and then return to you two and let you know if navigating them is feasible. It should only take me a few minutes."

Clair and Lance looked at each other. Eusine's plan sounded reasonable, but, on the other hand, if something were to happen to him, Clair and Lance would be completely lost, with no way to find their guide.

Eusine, apparently recognizing Clair's concerns, reached into his drenched suit's breast pocket and retrieved a small scroll of paper. Handing it to Clair, who unfurled the scroll, he said, "Here. This is the map I spoke of before. We are on this island here." He pointed to the island to the lower left of the map, which was the smallest of the four islands. Clair was amazed by the complexity of all of the underground tunnels depicted on the map. The island they stood on was actually connected to the two islands adjacent to it in several places, though Clair never would have guessed that.

"If I do not return right away, you can follow me through this tunnel here," Eusine said, tracing the lines of one of the underground tunnels, specifically the one leading to the island to the right of the one they were on. "Be careful, however; some of the tunnels, as I said, might be flooded."

"Okay," Lance replied, still sounding unsure. "How long should we wait before coming after you?"

Eusine appeared to consider it for a moment. "I should be back within twenty minutes or so," he said vaguely. "If I'm gone much longer than that, come looking for me."

"Err… okay," Clair agreed, though she was not entirely convinced that this plan was the best idea.

Without further discussion, Eusine took off running toward the gaping mouth of the cave. _That guy should be a track athlete, _Clair thought as he disappeared into the layer of fog that seemed to blanket the entire island.

Lance and Clair waited in silence for a few minutes, and Clair figured they were both contemplating the situation and deciding what to do in each possible scenario. _Lance and I are more similar than we like to admit sometimes,_ Clair admitted privately to herself.

Then, Lance did something curious— from his pocket, he retrieved what looked like a tiny piece of glass, holding it in his hand and examining it meticulously.

Clair had never seen it before, and she asked him, "What's that?"

"I'm not sure," Lance replied, still studying the object. "It looks like some kind of bell. I found it lying on the floor at Eusine's."

Clair snorted. "So, the logical thing to do was to just take it? It probably belongs to him."

"I don't know," Lance said, eyeing her testily. "Something just told me I should hold onto it."

He held up the object, which, Clair decided, did indeed resemble a bell. Its glass was smooth, clear and flawless, and it shined and sparkled as if it was under bright sunlight, even though it was overcast that day.

Lance gently shook the bell, and Clair heard a soft, pleasant tinkling, which starkly contrasted with the roaring of the ocean.

"It's nice," Clair commented matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," Lance agreed.

He stopped ringing the bell, and everything seemed to go quiet. Suddenly, Clair became hyperaware of everything around her— the cool mist on her face, the feel of her boots crunching in the sand, and the howl of the ocean wind. The fog that surrounded Clair and her cousin seemed to thicken, completely surrounding them until there was nothing but the two of them and the mist.

"Clair," Lance whispered uneasily, "I think something's happening."

"Me too," Clair agreed, shivering. "I can feel it."

Through the mist, a form— indistinct at first— began to advance towards them.

It walked on four legs, and its paws were huge, yet it stepped so lightly that they made no sound as it walked. The only noises Clair heard were the blowing of the wind and her own breathing.

Her pulse raced as she saw the face of the pokemon. It was beautiful, in a way; its eyes were sparkling red jewels, so soulful and intelligent that she almost felt she was gazing at another person. Its muzzle had a canine shape, and, as it got closer, Clair could see that flowing from the back of its head was a majestic mane, which billowed out behind it, almost seeming to merge with the wind itself. On its forehead was something that glittered in exactly the same manner in which the clear bell had — a crystal, in the shape of a hollow diamond.

She had only ever seen this pokemon in storybooks before, but now she realized that those stories had not been just stories after all - legendary pokemon _did _exist. As if it was an instinct, she opened her mouth and uttered softly,

"Suicune."


	12. 0B

****Author's Note:

I am officially back in school, so I am really, really busy. I'm sorry if I don't respond to reviews or messages as reliably. I'll try to keep updating regularly for as long as amphibianly possible, but I am taking 15 units and work 2 jobs, so we'll see what happens. Thanks for the reviews, everyone!

~TheFrogFromHell

**0B**

"Okay," James heard Jessie say hesitantly from inside her dressing room stall, "here goes…"

She swung open the mirrored door, twirling and striking a pose like a supermodel.

Unable to stop themselves, James and Meowth burst out laughing. Jessie was wearing an orange and green polka dotted dress that was cinched at the waist, but everywhere else it puffed out like a very colorful marshmallow.

"You're supposed to be dressing for dinner, not the circus," Meowth reminded her.

She shot him a murderous look, placing her hands on her hips and retaliating, "I _know, _Meowth! I was going for something striking and unusual. We need to make an impression on The Boss… you know, show him what he's missing!"

"That'll make an impression alright," James admitted, "but I think it's only going to show him what _you're _missing— a fashion sense!"

"Oh, and I suppose you think _you _could pick out something better?" Jessie snarled.

Twenty minutes later, the trio walked out of the Goldenrod City Department Store clad in matching sleek, black outfits. Jessie's was a one piece catsuit that hugged her figure flatteringly, making her appear as if she hadn't aged at all in the fifteen years it had been since The Boss had seen her. Tall black boots (much more stylish ones than she'd worn in her Team Rocket days, James made sure) completed the outfit, granting her a few extra inches of height. James's ensemble complimented his companion's; his consisted of boots, slacks, and a suit jacket that fit him so well, it appeared like he'd had it custom made. Meowth only wore a simple necktie, but it tied all three outfits together, making the trio look chic, sophisticated, and professional.

"Nice work, James," Meowth said as he admired their purchases. "Maybe next time I put on a show, you can design the costumes."

"I'd be a perfect fit for the position!" James replied excitedly. "By the way, Meowth, thanks for getting the clothes for us."

"Don't worry about it," Meowth responded dismissively with a wave of his paw. "Just pay me back after you win some battles with that machop."

"Uh-oh… it's almost seven o'clock," Jessie warned them, pointing to the huge clock that was mounted above the entrance to the Department Store.

"We'd better get to The Boss's mansion," James said, retrieving the card on which he'd written down the directions. Reading them, he remarked, "It's not far from here… we just need to head towards the Radio Tower and turn left…"

"Excuse me!" yelled an unfamiliar voice. Then, James was roughly shoved aside as a man in a top hat and brown leather jacket rushed past him.

"Hey!" Jessie shouted at the man irritably. "Watch where you're going, buddy!"

"My apologies… no time to stop!" the man replied as he continued on.

"City folks are so pushy," Meowth commented.

Quickly recovering from the incident, the trio continued towards their ex-boss's mansion. The place was so gigantic that James could see its form looming in the distance long before he made out the address. As they approached the estate, rain began to lightly sprinkle on James's face, and he was grateful that they'd be inside soon.

Soon, they came to a tall, golden gate that halted their progress.

"Do you have a key?" Jessie asked James, and he shook his head.

Then, to James's surprise, he heard someone clear his throat, and a disembodied voice began to speak to them.

"Names?" it requested. James noticed that on one of the gate's posts, there was a circular portion with many small holes in it— a speaker.

"Uh, James," James responded.

"Jessie."

"Meowth."

The golden gate made a metallic "ching", and then it began to swing inwards, opening gradually. James, Jessie, and Meowth waited until it had moved far enough back before entering.

Inside the estate, there was a long, stone walkway, which led to the front door of the mansion. On either side of the walkway, fresh cut green grass covered the even ground, and standing on the lawn were lifelike pokemon sculptures made of shrubs. Actually, they seemed so real that it was rather eerie to look at them; the more menacing ones, like Gyarados and Charizard, truly appeared like they could lunge at the trio and attack them at any moment.

The walkway was so long that it was quite a trek to reach the entrance to the mansion. Above the front door was a large, arced overhang, made of some kind of polished stone or marble, and, on the ground underneath, sculpted cobblestone steps led up to the door.

As James looked more closely at the cobblestone, he found that the chiseled, colorful rocks were actually a mosaic of an arcanine, its fiery mane crafted from stones of varying hues of red, yellow and orange. The artistry of the mosaic was quite incredible; whoever had assembled it was a skilled craftsman.

"I knew the boss was rich when we worked for Team Rocket, but this is unbelievable," James commented to his companions. _How did he ever get so much money?_ James wondered in awe.

"He's got so much dough, he could bake cookies with it," Jessie agreed.

James noticed that, on the carved, heavy door, there was a brass knocker in the shape of a persian's head. The cat's eyes were red jewels, and its teeth were bared in warning. Tentatively, he grasped the cool, metal apparatus and gently rapped it against the door.

"Here we go," James remarked nervously, his pulse racing. When he'd worked for Team Rocket before, his meetings with The Boss had never been altogether pleasant, as it had seemed that nothing Jessie and James did had ever satisfied him. _Maybe he's different now, _James speculated optimistically.

He heard the click of a lock being turned, and the door opened to reveal a formally-dressed butler.

"Welcome, friends of Giovanni," the man said, bowing to them. James and Jessie exchanged astonished looks; they were unused to anyone treating them with such reverence. "My name is Jerome."

"Hi," Jessie replied awkwardly.

"Please, come in," the butler said, stepping aside.

Jessie and James complied, timidly entering the foyer of the mansion. James shoved his hands into his pockets nervously, his hand brushing the belt that held his pokeballs. A strange thought struck him; it felt like he was missing something. _My bell, _he remembered, _that little glass one that I found at Tin Tower. Where is it? Could I have left it at Eusine's?_ He'd liked the bell, and it bothered him to think that he might have lost it, but he decided there were more important matters at hand and pushed the thoughts if it to the back of his mind.

Inside the mansion, it was even more impressive than outside, which was saying a lot. The foyer's ceiling was made of transparent glass, revealing the night sky above, where a thick layer of storm clouds concealed the stars. The floor was made of polished mahogany, and on the walls hung pieces of black and white abstract art.

"Right this way," said the butler, escorting Jessie, James, and Meowth through the foyer and into the main portion of the mansion.

James was amazed as the group seemed to pass through room after room, with each room more stylish and elaborately decorated than the last. Leather couches, fancy armoires, authentic fur rugs (probably made from pokemon skins, James guessed), and glass chandeliers were just a few staples of the mansion. The place was so enormous that James doubted he could find his way out without the butler's guidance.

Finally, they approached a room containing a narrow, black spiral staircase, and Jerome informed them, "The dining room, where Master Giovanni awaits you, is upstairs."

"Oh… err, okay," James replied as Jerome stood back and gestured for them to climb the stairway. James was a little nervous when he realized that the butler was not intending to accompany them. The trio exchanged nervous glances before beginning their ascent.

Their shoes clinged and clanged on the metal steps as they climbed. All of the rooms in the mansion seemed to have astronomically high ceilings, and, if James had been afraid of heights, the distance from the top of the staircase to the marble floor below would have petrified him.

Reaching the apex of the spiral staircase, the trio found themselves standing in a long, narrow hallway with several doors on either side of it. The lighting here was particularly dim, almost giving James the impression that no one was here, and that they'd come to the wrong wing of the house, but then he noticed a subtle, rosy glow emanating from one of the doors, which was hanging ajar.

James took a deep breath and nodded to his companions before approaching the open door, trying to calm his nerves. Behind him, he heard Jessie's boots click-clacking on the hardwood floor, as well the subtle scratching of Meowth's claws.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in the doorway, effectively blocking the warm glow James had seen and casting a long shadow down the hall.

Because he was backlit, James could not make out the figure's face, but his identity was unquestionable when he uttered calmly in a familiar voice,

"Welcome, my friends. It has been too long."

Jessie, James, and Meowth looked at each other, stunned. _Since when have we been The Boss's "friends"? _James thought incredulously. _The last time we spoke to him, I just felt lucky not to have been beheaded._

"Umm… hi, err…" Jessie began ineloquently. _She doesn't know what to call him, _James figured. _We can't exactly refer to him as "The Boss" anymore._

Through the shadows, James thought he saw the man's lips curl up into a smile.

"'Giovanni' is fine," he told them cordially. "I think we should be on a first name basis by now, don't you think, Jessie?"

James watched painfully as Jessie nodded timidly and clasped her trembling hands behind her back. Usually, Jessie had trouble keeping her mouth closed, but now she was too nervous to speak. Not many things had that effect on her, but speaking to The Boss (or, "Giovanni", James corrected himself) had always been one of them.

A very uncomfortable silence passed, doing nothing to help James's anxiety. Somehow, the way Giovanni was acting— as if nothing was wrong, and there had never been any bad blood between them— only made James feel more uneasy. Not that he was eager to bring up the unpleasant events of the past, but something about Giovanni reminded James of an arbok— calm, still, and docile, until it was ready to strike.

"Well, enough chitchat here in the hall. Come in to the dining room, where we will eat, drink, and catch up!" Giovanni said, taking a few steps backwards and inviting them into the room.

Immediately, James noticed what had been the source of the rosy glow they'd seen— several red candles were arranged in the center of a long dining room table. The candles were the only source of light in the room, making it difficult to make out the fine details of its décor. However, James could see that there were five places set at the table: one at its head, and two on each side.

James had to stop himself from gasping audibly when he saw the woman seated on one side of the table.

He remembered from his phone conversation with Giovanni, and vaguely from when he'd worked for Team Rocket, that her name was Domino, a.k.a. "Double-Oh-Nine" or "The Black Tulip". His only real recollection of her was from a single mission that had happened not long before James had left the Rockets. It had really only been a sight-seeing job, really, with a few of them going as a group to survey Celadon City for possible locations to use for a base. Domino's assignment, as James recalled, had been to keep the lower ranked agents, including Jessie and James, "in line".

At the time, Domino had been loud-mouthed, authoritarian, and, above all, hyperaware of her own attractiveness, never missing a chance to admire herself in a mirror. Needless to say, James hadn't been Domino's biggest fan, but even the self-absorbed, hardhearted Domino he remembered was preferable to the woman he saw now.

It had been fifteen years since James had seen her, but she appeared to have aged at least twenty. She barely made any indication that she had noticed the trio's entrance, other than an almost imperceptible nod. She was disturbingly slim; her white, sleeveless cocktail dress revealed skeletal shoulders and pale, wiry arms, and her thinning blond hair was pulled back into an elegant style, highlighting her angular cheekbones. Her gaunt face held a bored, mildly displeased expression, and she refused to meet James's eyes as he entered.

"Domino," Giovanni said casually, though James thought he detected the slightest hint of warning in the man's tone, "that's no way to greet our guests. Come, say 'hello'!"

The woman quietly stood up, and, as she walked over to them, James noticed that she was gracefully tottering on five-inch high-heeled shoes, their stiletto heels so narrow that she could probably stab someone with them.

"Hello," Domino greeted them dryly, and James got the impression that she wasn't pleased at all that they were there.

"Hello," Jessie replied, her tone revealing her annoyance. _Oh, please, Jessie, _James thought, praying that she could hold her temper just for an evening.

"How do you do?" James asked politely.

Domino didn't really reply; she just turned her red lips up into something between a smile and a sneer and let out a short, cutting laugh. _Alright, _James admitted to himself, _The Black Tulip is definitely still in there somewhere._ Suddenly, he was looking forward to dinner even less than he already had been.

James spotted Giovanni looking daggers at his wife, who simply met his gaze contemptuously. _They put the "dysfunctional" in "dysfunctional family", _James thought uncomfortably, and from the expressions on the faces of Jessie and Meowth, he could tell that they were thinking along similar lines.

The group gathered around the table, Giovanni taking his seat at the head. Now that he was better lit, James could examine his ex-boss's appearance more closely. He'd definitely aged; there were deep lines carved into his face that hadn't been there when James had known him before, and flecks of gray speckled his dark, formally-styled hair. Strangely, though, he appeared far more youthful than his wife, who James knew was actually much younger than Giovanni.

Jessie and James sat down next to each other, and Meowth reluctantly took his seat next to Domino. The seat was much too tall for the pokemon, and his lower paws dangled under him, far from touching the floor.

Being alone with Giovanni in the hall had been unnerving, but this was just about unbearable. The group sat in complete silence for what seemed like forever, Jessie and James smiling politely while staring down at their napkins, which were suddenly fascinating. Jerome came in after a minute to pour wine for them all. It was a very dark red wine, and, in the dim lighting, it appeared as if James was drinking a glass of black tar. However, the taste was excellent, and James found himself halfway finished with the glass before they'd even begun conversing.

It was Meowth who began the exchange. "So… Giovanni," he said awkwardly, "it's interestin' that you've got a place in Goldenrod City. I happen to live just a few blocks away from here."

"Ah," the man acknowledged. "With some other meowth, or with our friends James and Jessie here?"

Meowth looked a little offended. "Actually, I live alone, in an apartment. I live in Goldenrod, but I work all around Johto."

_Way to go, Meowth, _James thought, wishing he could encourage the cat pokemon aloud. _Play up the success!_

Domino laughed again. "Doing _what_?" she asked curtly, and her husband gave her a disapproving glance.

Meowth, now obviously irritated, replied, "I'm a magician, that's what. The best magician in all of Johto."

"His tricks are truly amazing," James said, coming to his friend's aid. "His last show literally blew me away!"

"And his ticket sales are exploding," Jessie added.

"Very impressive," Giovanni commented, though Domino just looked skeptical. Turning to Jessie and James, he inquired, "And what have you two been up to the last fifteen years? Surely you've found… _fulfilling _careers by now." For the first time since they'd reconnected that evening, James got the impression that their ex-boss was, indeed, bitter about the way in which they'd ended their careers with Team Rocket.

"Oh, yes," James answered immediately, hoping he sounded convincing, "we're very fulfilled, working as, erm…"

"Technicians," Jessie interjected, and James was grateful that she'd saved them. "Uh… travel technicians."

"We're never in one place for too long!" James added.

"I see," Giovanni acknowledged, nodding and turning the corners of his mouth up into a half-smile. "And… what exactly is your job description? What does a 'travel technician' _do_?"

"Well," Jessie said, thinking on the spot, "we… travel around…"

"Fixing things," finished James. "It's very rewarding."

"They fixed my shoehorn once," Meowth told Giovanni, and James mouthed "thanks" to his friend.

Jessie, oblivious, commented to the cat pokemon, "But you don't wear any shoes, Meowth."

"Jessie!" James exclaimed.

"It's just for show," Meowth said quickly.

Giovanni chuckled, and James was fairly certain that their ex-boss wasn't convinced by their story. Thankfully, he didn't press the issue.

Another few moments of uncomfortable silence passed, and James drummed his fingers on the table in a rapid, frantic rhythm.

"Stop that," Domino shot at him like a persian hissing at its prey. Giovanni glared at her darkly.

Jerome returned after awhile, delivering them garden salads and freshly baked bread. James, realizing he hadn't eaten since that morning's breakfast at Eusine's, dug in with fervor, and Jessie and Meowth followed suit. It was only when James noticed that Giovanni and Domino were slowly picking away at their food as if plucking out weeds rather than eating that he felt self-conscious.

Jessie gave a little nod of encouragement to James, and Meowth mimicked the gesture. _Thanks a lot, guys, _James thought, realizing that they'd mutually decided that he would be the one to begin the difficult conversation.

"So…" James began, all of the confidence his half a glass of wine had granted him quickly evaporating, "how's… err…"

Jessie gave him a frustrated look.

"How is what?" Giovanni asked, almost as if he was toying with James.

"How's… y'know, the business?"

Giovanni looked at his wife, raised his thick eyebrows, and grinned. Domino simply averted her gaze, scowling at her salad.

"Business is… quite good," Giovanni replied as he speared a sun-dried tomato with his fork.

"Oh," James commented, eyeing Jessie and Meowth, "err… how so?"

Again, Giovanni chuckled at James's question. _It's almost like I'm just a child to him_, James thought. _He doesn't take anything I say seriously._

James's ex-boss held up his fork as if studying the angle in which the sharp prongs of the fork pierced the vegetable. Then, he slowly brought the fork to his lips, savoring the taste of the tomato in his mouth and taking his time swallowing before answering James.

"Our organization has undergone some major changes since you were involved in it, James," Giovanni told him. "Our business practices now are much more… polished. We've let go of a lot of dead weight, refined our corporate infrastructure, and we've accomplished specific goals that, ten years ago, would have been impossible."

"Hmm," James remarked, unsure what to say next. It seemed that Giovanni was explaining everything away, but providing them with no additional information.

To James's surprise, Giovanni took another bite of his salad and then continued his thought. "Shortly after you two left Team Rocket, as we were called at the time, my wife and I redefined the focus of our organization. We came up with a revolutionary approach— an organized collection of rules and regulations, designed to maximize the efficiency and profitability of the Pokemon League Challenge system."

Jessie, James, and Meowth nodded interestedly, doing everything they could to encourage their ex-boss to continue his elaboration.

"That system has taken the Kanto region by storm, with all eight cites involved in the League, as well as Indigo Plateau, having adopted it." Giovanni gestured to the red candles burning in the center of the table.

"These are more than just decorations," he explained. "Each candle represents a city that has converted to Rocket Inc.'s regime. We hope to, one day, reach sixteen— eight in each region."

_Eleven, _James counted. _Eight in Kanto and eleven all together… that means that three cities in Johto have already converted_.

"Of course, our plans for Violet City and Azalea town haven't been carried out just yet," Giovanni admitted, "but both of those gym leaders have agreed to adopt the system as soon as we make a trip there to set it into place."

James lifted up his wine glass to take another sip but realized it was already empty. Jessie shot him a look of disbelief, and he noticed that neither she nor Meowth had touched their drinks at all. _Oops._

Domino, who James had nearly forgotten about, remarked sarcastically, "My dear, it's unwise to count your murkrow before they hatch. Collect signatures, then burn candles."

James was unnerved by the fury he saw in Giovanni's gaze.

"I'll burn my candles whenever I please," he retorted, barely keeping his temper. "Dear, it may be time for Silver's evening meal. Go check on him."

The man's statement sounded more like a command than a request, and James looked at Jessie and Meowth nervously.

"Yes, _dear_," Domino shot back, rising up from her seat and teeter-tottering on her high heels out into the hall.

"Silver?" Jessie inquired.

"Ah, yes… something I haven't told you. Silver is my son. He is just six months old, and makes quite the ruckus when upset, so I thought it would be wise not to have him join us at the table."

_Giovanni has a son?_ James thought in shock. _Everything has changed so much since we left Team Rocket…_

"Well, umm… congratulations," Jessie told Giovanni awkwardly.

"Thank you."

Giovanni cleared his throat, and, this time, it was he who asked the question.

"So… when I spoke to you last night, James, you told me you had an important matter to discuss with me. While I thoroughly enjoy casual conversation with you…" James almost laughed at that part, "…I'm curious as to why you contacted me after all these years. What is this 'important matter' you speak of?"

James tried to keep calm and breathe evenly as he replied. _Here goes, _he thought reluctantly, wishing he'd skipped the glass of wine.

"Well," he began, his voice wavering despite his best efforts, "we remembered from when we worked for you that you were an expert on legendary pokemon, and, um, we were wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for us."

Giovanni raised an eyebrow. "I see," he said. "And why did you not contact an authority on legendary pokemon instead of the CEO of Rocket, Inc., who happens to be busier than you could ever imagine?"

The man's voice had taken on a tenor of irritation, which surprised James given the subdued, if tension-filled, conversation that had preceded this exchange.

"We consider you to be an authority," Jessie said, joining the conversation.

Giovanni chuckled again, shaking his head as if astounded by the absurdity of Jessie's comment.

"Which pokemon are you interested in?" their ex-boss questioned.

_I guess we have to tell him _some, James decided before continuing.

"Ho-Oh," James replied. "We have a… um, friend who found a Rainbow Wing and needs more information about it. Do you know anything about Ho-Oh?"

Jessie and Meowth sat perfectly still, their eyes fixed on Giovanni. _This is it, _James thought. _Either he answers us, or we walk away with nothing._

This time, when Giovanni laughed, it bubbled up from deep inside him like black, thick oil escaping from the ground. It started as a low chortle, but it grew and grew until the man was practically in hysterics.

"What I know about Ho-Oh," Giovanni finally said when he'd calmed down a little, "is that it doesn't like to be bothered, and it doesn't like untrustworthy people."

"Uh-huh," the trio chorused, listening with interest.

Giovanni began raising his voice as he spoke, his perceptible anger making his words razor sharp. "It dislikes being disturbed, and when it invites people into its home, it expects them to be respectful, and to not waste its valuable time."

James, Jessie, and Meowth exchanged confused glances.

"I didn't know people often visited Ho-Oh," Meowth commented. Giovanni looked at him, smirked, and, once again, broke out into cutting laughter.

"Ho-Oh is not an _idiot_, and it knows when someone has betrayed its trust, questioning it while using a stupid, transparent back story. Ho-Oh knows all. Ho-Oh will _not _be betrayed again."

Jessie still looked perplexed, and she started to ask, "But, I didn't think Ho-Oh—"

"Jessie," James interrupted quietly, "I don't think he's talking about Ho-Oh."

James shivered as he heard a "click", and felt a piece of cold metal touching the back of his head.

Behind him, a deep, gruff voice uttered threateningly, "Good thinking."


	13. 0C

**0C**

"Suicune."

Lance heard his cousin's words, but his mind, at first, couldn't connect them with the incredible pokemon standing before him. _Legendary pokemon are just legends, _Lance thought. _They can't exist!_

But then, the pokemon lowered its head to Lance's eye level, and Lance heard in his mind,

**Yes. 'Suicune' is what I have been called by humans since I can remember. I have also been called the Bringer of Wind. **

Lance was dumfounded, in awe of this magnificent creature. _Telepathy, _he thought, _only psychic pokemon can use telepathy. Yet, I can hear its words perfectly in my own head. This pokemon _must _be a legendary pokemon._ For the first time, Lance admitted to himself that his cousin had been right to believe the man in the safe house about Lugia— if Suicune existed, it was more than likely that the winged Keeper of Storms existed as well.

"Why have you come to us?" Clair inquired.

_Jessie and James mentioned that Raikou had appeared to them to warn them about the end of the world, _Lance remembered. _I wonder if that is Suicune's purpose as well._

The pokemon cocked its head to the side as if confused. **I do not understand**_, _it communicated. **You summoned me yourselves, with the Clear Bell. **

Lance's jaw dropped. "_This_?" he questioned disbelievingly, holding up the tiny glass bell he'd found at Eusine's.

**Yes**, Suicune confirmed. **The Clear Bell always finds its way into the hands of worthy, pure-hearted trainers. Because I heard its ring, I thought you needed my assistance.**

"Well, not exactly," Lance confessed, "but, since you're here… maybe you could help us with something."

The pokemon drew back a little, apparently displeased.

**I do not respond well to selfish requests, **it told them. **But I do offer my protection to those who require it, and, at this moment, I sense that you do.**

Lance looked at Clair, furrowing his brow in confusion, and then back to Suicune.

"What do you mean?"

The pokemon paused for a moment before replying. Gazing at them knowingly, it projected in their minds, **The human you came here with— your guide— is not to be trusted. He has run off with something you value greatly.**

"Eusine?" Clair inquired, puzzled. "But that can't be… he saved my life!"

Lance noticed something that made his heart sink.

"Clair," he said apprehensively, "around your neck."

Wide-eyed, Clair reached for her Silver Wing and discovered that it was gone.

"That… that _traitor_!" she shrieked, enraged. "This whole time, he was just waiting for an opportunity to steal it from me!"

"I'm sorry, Clair," Lance told her sincerely. _I _knew_ there was something off about him, _Lance thought, shaking his head.

**Without the Silver Wing, **Suicune explained, **Lugia will be invisible to you, and, if your guide gets too close to it, he will temporarily become invisible as well.**

"We have to find him before he reaches Lugia," Lance exclaimed anxiously. Turning to his cousin, he said, "He probably just told us about the blocked tunnels to keep us from following him. Maybe we can still catch up to him."

**I will assist you, **Suicune communicated, **but we must hurry. I have been aware of Eusine's existence for many years. Do not be deceived by him; his mind is poisoned, and that makes him very dangerous.**

Lance didn't understand what Suicune meant by "his mind is poisoned" but he decided to take the pokemon's word for it.

The two approached the wide mouth of the tunnel. Inside, it was dark and dank, but nowhere near as dark as Mt. Mortar had been.

As they progressed deeper into the cave, the sand became more and more saturated with moisture, and soon, Lance was sloshing around in ankle-deep, freezing cold water. After they'd walked approximately a hundred yards in, the cavern split off into two separate tunnels.

"Which way?" Lance asked Suicune.

**I sense the human's presence more strongly in the tunnel to the right, **it answered, and Lance and Clair sloshed through the deepening water as fast as they could into the tunnel.

There was an uncomfortable period in which the water was too shallow to release Gyarados or Kingdra, but too deep to walk through efficiently, so Lance and Clair were forced to swim. Lance's whole body objected to the agonizingly low temperature of the water, his muscles threatening to stop contracting and his skin numbing. Suicune, apparently, had the ability to sprint across bodies of water, and it ran swiftly ahead of them, waiting patiently for the dragon masters at the beach of dry sand on the other side.

_Eusine's such a powerful trainer, yet he tried to hide it from us, hoping I wouldn't remember. I'd let it go until now, but what if…_

"Clair," Lance said uneasily as they swam, "I just had a thought."

"You mean, other than 'I'm freezing'?" she replied, teeth chattering from the cold water. "Incredible. What was it?"

"I was just wondering why Eusine would try to keep his skills as a trainer hidden from us. I was satisfied with his explanation earlier, but… after this…" Lance looked at her seriously before continuing. "I think there's a possibility he's the one who infiltrated the Dragon's Den."

"What?!" Clair responded, sounding skeptical. "Don't you think that's a little hard to believe?"

"No, I don't," Lance said definitively. "He's obviously willing to do anything to get his hands on something legendary pokemon related. Maybe he went to the den to steal Ho-Oh's flame, and when my great uncle asked him to leave, things got ugly."

"Maybe," Clair acknowledged, nodding her head slowly, "but I'm not convinced yet."

Finally, the water was deep enough to Surf, and Lance released Gyarados, who carried him and Clair to the dry bank where Suicune stood.

When the trainers arrived at the bank, Suicune projected to them, **He is very near now. Prepare yourselves.**

Lance withdrew Gyarados, since the aquatic pokemon was slow moving on land, but he released Aerodactyl in its place, who licked Lance excitedly before grasping the seriousness of the situation.

"You must be quiet, Aero," Lance explained in a whisper, "because we don't want Eusine to know we're coming."

The dragon nodded its head in affirmation.

Clair, also almost silently, released one of her dragonair. In the back of his mind, Lance remembered the pokemon the Karate King had given to Clair inside Mt. Mortar. _I wonder if she'll ever use it?_ _We haven't even looked at what type of pokemon it is…_

Ahead, the cavern curved around farther to the right, and, as Lance and Clair continued on, another pool of water came into view. The two trainers remained close to the cave wall, trying to stay as hidden as possible, until they came to a large, open grotto, where the body of water covered most of the floor, other than a small bank of sand on the other side. The cavern appeared to be a dead end at first, but then Lance noticed that the opposite wall was covered in rough, protruding rocks. _Someone could scale that wall,_ Lance determined. _It would be tough, but possible for a skilled climber._

He looked upward and saw that, at about twenty feet, the rock wall flattened into a sandy plateau.

Where Eusine stood.

He turned his head towards Lance and Clair, noticing them immediately. The man was too far away for Lance to see his face clearly, but, when he spoke, Lance heard surprise in his voice.

"My friends," Eusine called out, holding his arms out openly, "I did not expect you to come after me so soon. Do not fret; I am perfectly—"

Then, Suicune revealed itself, emerging from the tunnel and coming to stand next to Clair and Lance.

Eusine gasped, walking forward to the edge of the cliff.

"It can't be," he exclaimed. "I've waited twenty-five years for this… do my eyes deceive me?"

"No," Lance growled furiously, "but you deceived us! Clair was understanding of you, but I'll have you know that I never trusted you, and you have only proven what a despicable person you are by stealing her Silver Wing!"

In a shocking display of athleticism that Lance wasn't aware the man had, Eusine leapt off the rocky cliff, landing lightly and gracefully in a kneeling position on the sandy bank below. He stood up haughtily, brushing himself off and scowling at Lance. Even from across the body of water, Lance could see the icy hatred in the man's crystal-blue eyes.

"I'll tell you what kind of person I am," Eusine said darkly, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a pokeball, which he held in his hand casually.

_I haven't seen Eusine's pokemon for fifteen years, _Lance realized. _I have no idea what he could be keeping in that ball._

"I am an honest, hard worker," Eusine elaborated. "I studied and researched and trained for almost thirty years searching for the legendaries. I assembled an unconquerable team of pokemon, whom I've treated with the trust and respect they deserve. I am _worthy_!"

With that, he threw the pokeball up into the air. The beam of red light it emitted quickly materialized into a gengar, and a strong one at that. The ghost pokemon, who floated down to stand at Eusine's feet, grinned evilly and winked at Lance, turning invisible momentarily before reappearing, standing atop some rocks on the other side of the cavern.

_He had a haunter when I battled him at Indigo Plateau, _Lance remembered. _It must have evolved since then. I don't think I've ever even seen one this strong._ The pokemon's level was in the triple digits, Lance could tell.

"Suicune, Bringer of Wind," Eusine proclaimed, "today, I shall demonstrate my worth!"

**You are powerful, Eusine, **Suicune projected. **But power is not what makes one worthy.**

Eusine chuckled, smirking as if the legendary pokemon's words had been an amusing joke.

"Gengar, use Mean Look."

The pokemon grinned again, its eyes glowing hypnotically at Suicune.

Lance looked over at the legendary pokemon, who seemed to be fixated on Gengar's gaze. _This doesn't look good, _Lance thought fretfully.

"You can't escape now," Eusine said to Suicune ominously.

Lance glanced over at his cousin with a question in his eyes, and she nodded in confirmation.

"Together," Lance mouthed.

"Go, Aerodactyl!" Lance yelled, and his dragon began soaring at top speed towards Gengar.

"Dragonair, go get 'em!" Clair instructed her dragon simultaneously.

But, to Lance's surprise, Suicune stopped them. **No, **it communicated, shaking its head and forming ripples in its mane, **allow me to test this trainer myself. Perhaps this will be a lesson to him.**

Eusine narrowed his eyes, obviously enraged by Suicune's comment.

"You're mine," he snarled. "_I _deserve you. _I'm _the one who's scoured the region for you for so long! It was dumb luck that the Clear Bell came to them. They," he gestured to Clair and Lance, "are _no one! Nothing!_"

Suicune suddenly opened its mouth and unleashed a huge gust of wind that Lance felt whipping across his face. The attack was directed at Gengar, but the ghost pokemon expertly dodged it, flipping like a gymnast in the air before landing gracefully in front of Lance and Clair.

_I wish I could attack it, _Lance thought, _but I don't want to ignore Suicune's wishes._

"Gengar, Night Shade," Eusine instructed.

Lance flinched as he heard the command; he'd never liked ghost-type attacks, and Night Shade was one of the nastier ones. Lance averted his gaze from the pokemon's assault, but he felt a chill in the air and noticed the room darkening while the move was occurring.

When he looked back, he saw that Suicune was still standing, but it appeared to have been at least slightly affected by the attack.

**Your pokemon is strong, **Suicune admitted. **However, I tire of these games, and of your arrogance.**

Lance, Clair, and Eusine gasped as a rainbow of color ran across the legendary pokemon's body. Then, Suicune opened its mouth again, this time producing a bright, luminescent beam so cold that Lance detected its chill from several feet away. _Aurora Beam_.

The beam had moved so incredibly fast that Eusine's gengar had failed to dodge it. The icy beam hit the opposing pokemon directly, forming an icy crust that slowed the gengar's movements as it thickened. Eventually, Eusine's pokemon was completely frozen inside a transparent block of ice.

"Gengar," Eusine stated as if in disbelief. "How…" But his resolve quickly returned. Gazing at Suicune determinedly, he retrieved another pokeball from his suit pocket.

"Go, Hypno," he called, releasing the psychic-type pokemon, who appeared in front of him, leering at Suicune.

"Why is he not recalling Gengar?" Clair asked Lance.

"As long as Gengar's still on the field, Mean Look is in effect," Lance explained, recalling that Eusine had used that tactic during their battle at Indigo Plateau.

"So, unless Gengar faints, Suicune is stuck here?" Clair questioned, and Lance nodded reluctantly.

"Psychic!" Eusine commanded Hypno.

The pokemon's eyes glowed blue, and the room seemed to distort as Hypno released a powerful wave of psychic energy that made Suicune's mane dance wildly behind it. The legendary beast lowered its head, standing its ground and enduring the attack like a stone statue in a storm. When the attack ended, Suicune shook itself off and prepared another Aurora Beam attack. This time, however, Eusine was ready.

As Suicune projected the icy beam, Hypno and Eusine jumped into the air, landing on opposite sides of the sandy bank. Suicune's attack hit the jagged rock wall behind them, leaving a portion of it covered in a sheet of ice.

"Hypno, use Disable now!"

The pokemon's eyes glowed again, but this time, what looked like blue lighting struck Suicune, who appeared confused for a moment, looking around the room in a stupor.

"Now, Suicune can't even use Aurora Beam. This looks bad," Clair said to Lance with concern in her voice.

"Yes," he agreed, "it does." _Suicune may be strong, but it's only one pokemon, and Eusine has a whole team with maxed out stats!_

"Suicune," Clair called out, "let us help you!"

The beast turned to Clair, and Lance saw a flash of warning in its red eyes.

**No**, it objected. Suddenly, the cave was filled with the sounds of thunder, and rain began pouring down on them.

"How is that…" Lance started to say, but then he realized that Suicune was using Rain Dance. _It must be preparing to use a water-type attack, _he figured.

The pokemon roared, and Lance watched in awe as the calm pool of water in front of Suicune was suddenly disturbed by some unseen force. Then, three powerful jets of water shot out of the pool, aiming straight for Hypno, who was still standing on the sandy bank in front of Eusine.

The force of the Hydro Pump attack knocked Hypno backwards, slamming it against Eusine, who cried out in pain and surprise. The trainer and his pokemon were thrown back into the wall behind them, sliding down the icy sheath that Suicune's Aurora Beam had created.

The two, now crumpled in a heap on the ground, were down, but unfortunately not out.

They slowly rose to their feet, wearing matching furious expressions on their faces.

"Hypno, again! Psychic!"

The pokemon generated its powerful wave of psychic energy once more, but before the attack reached Suicune, the legendary pokemon darted along the edge of the pool to the other side, out of harm's way.

Now, Eusine and Suicune stood face to face, only a few feet away from each other, with Hypno sandwiched in the middle. Unexpectedly, the legendary beast lowered its head and clenched its enormous jaws around Hypno, who protested, "Hyp!" before being tossed nonchalantly into the pool of water. Hypno had already lost most of its health points from the Hydro Pump attack, so it simply floated to the surface, lying on its back, unconscious.

Eusine frowned, reluctantly returning the pokemon to its ball.

**Eusine, **Suicune projected, **relinquish this battle. If worthiness is what you seek, this behavior is only moving you further from your goal.**

"No," Eusine cried in aggravation. "Not after all these years! Not when I'm so close!" He retrieved another pokeball from his pocket, preparing to summon his third pokemon. Then, so softly that Lance could barely make out the words, Eusine vowed, "I will not disappoint you, Grandfather."

He peered at Suicune with fiery desperation in his clear, blue eyes. Then, he hurled his pokeball towards the legendary pokemon and yelled, "Electrode! I choose you!"

The round sphere of a pokemon materialized in front of its trainer.

"Trode," it remarked mightily, eyeing its opponent.

Lance gritted his teeth anxiously. Suicune's HP was already down by at least half, and Electrode had a major type advantage against the legendary beast.

"All that water's going to make Electrode's electrical current really powerful," Clair said to Lance worriedly.

"I know," Lance acknowledged. "Let's just hope that Suicune gets an attack in first."

Again, Suicune began stirring up the pool of water in preparation for a Hydro Pump attack, but Eusine noticed this right away and acted accordingly.

"Electrode, Light Screen!" he instructed his pokemon.

The pokemon erected its sturdy, bright white barrier just in the nick of time, and Suicune's jets of water simply bounced off the screen's sides, with Electrode taking little to no damage from the attack.

"Excellent work!" Eusine told his pokemon proudly. He grinned triumphantly, pointing to Suicune, and instructed Electrode, "Now, _Thunder!_"

Clair and Lance were startled as a huge flash of lightning occurred, originating from the cave's ceiling. Then, a giant, glowing bolt shot down from the ceiling straight at Suicune, overwhelming the pokemon's body with an incredibly powerful shock.

"Suicune!" Clair screamed. As the shock was dying down, she turned to Lance and cried frantically, "We have to help it. Go, Dragonai—"

"Wait," Lance interrupted, holding up his hand.

He had expected Suicune to collapse immediately after the attack, but, remarkably, it was still standing. Lance's heart pounded as he waited to see what would happen next. _It may not have fainted, _he observed, _but it's down to almost no HP— hanging on by a thread!_

**Even electric attacks will not conquer me, **Suicune communicated to Eusine.

However, the pokemon's words affected the man in the exact opposite manner that Lance had expected them to.

Eusine chuckled again, reaching into his pocket again for something. _Another pokemon? _Lance wondered. _But why does he need another one? One more attack from Electrode, and Suicune is toast!_

"I have you exactly where I want you, Suicune," Eusine gloated. He held up the thing that had been in his pocket— a curious-looking pokeball. It was unlike any ball Lance had seen before; the entire ball— top and bottom— was pure white, except for a few flecks of blue, purple, and silver that gleamed even in the dim lighting of the cave.

"I paid a visit to my friend, Kurt, in Azalea Town two days ago," Eusine explained, gazing at the ball. "I commissioned him to create a special pokeball for me— one specifically designed to capture legendary pokemon. I was unhappy that it wasn't finished in time for Ho-Oh, but now I see that this is the perfect use for it." Smirking, he added, "It is second only to Silph Co.'s Master Ball."

"Stop it, Eusine!" Clair shouted angrily. "The world's already out of balance, and catching Suicune isn't going to improve matters! Can't you see that legendary pokemon are not meant to be caught?"

Eusine glowered at her. "I made a promise to someone once," he told her. "And that promise was that, one day, I would find Suicune and harness its power for my own. Today," he declared, holding up the pokeball, "is the day I will fulfill my oath! Myth Ball, go!"

Lance watched in horror as Eusine launched the ball at Suicune. _It's much too weak to struggle, _he knew, _and who knows what will happen when it is caught?_

Then, just as the ball was about to open and capture the legendary beast, a startlingly intense blast of pure energy intercepted its path. After striking and shattering the ball, the blast continued on at full force, smashing into the cave wall. The beam was so powerful that, as it whipped past them, Lance and Clair were knocked backwards just from the air it displaced.

Eusine blinked, flabbergasted. Then, furiously, he shrieked, "What was _that_?!"

Lance tasted blood in his mouth, as the blast had caused him to collide with the cave's rocky wall, hard. Clair lay groaning in the sand a few feet away from him, and he asked her,

"Clair… when Pryce read us that story about Lugia… y'know, when we were kids… do you remember which attack the book said it could use?"

Clair, still wincing in pain from hitting the ground so hard, appeared to think for a moment.

"Umm… Air. Aero-something."

Lance furrowed his brow in confusion. _Aero-something? Like aerodactyl?_

Then, from across the pool, a terrified Eusine yelled, "Aeroblast!"

Another forceful beam of energy appeared abruptly, this one almost grazing the side of Eusine's head as it passed by him. Apparently, it was targeted at Electrode, who was blown back into the water, fainting almost immediately from the strength of the attack. Eusine recalled the pokemon, holding its ball in a trembling hand. This time, Lance had seen where the beam had come from— the sandy plateau above Eusine.

_Could it really be Lugia attacking? _Lance thought in awe. He thought he heard the sounds of something big moving around above the rock wall, but he couldn't be sure.

"Lance," he heard, "we have to move, _now_."

It was Clair, and she sounded horrified.

"What?" Lance asked, but as soon as he turned toward her, his question was answered.

The wall, where the attack had struck it just seconds ago, had cracked, and now it was quickly crumbling. The whole cave rumbled, with larger and larger chunks of dirt and rock beginning to fall from the ceiling, and Clair and Lance held up their hands to protect themselves.

Clair looked over at Eusine's gengar, who was still floating inside a frozen block in the middle of the pool.

"Eusine," she yelled anxiously, "recall your gengar!"

"If I do that, Suicune will run away!" Eusine argued.

"If you don't recall it" - she leaned to the side to dodge a falling rock - "they'll both be killed!"

Reluctantly, Eusine lifted his pokeball, retrieving his frozen pokemon from the pool.

Immediately, Suicune whirled around and took off running back through the tunnel.

**Until we meet again, **it projected to Lance and Clair.

_Thanks for the help, _Lance thought sarcastically, though he knew that he and his cousin could use their pokemon to escape the cavern.

"No, Suicune… Wait!" Eusine cried desperately, crestfallen. Right after Suicune passed through the arced entrance to the cavern, the entryway's structure collapsed on itself, blocking the pathway entirely.

Aerodactyl, still flying around overhead, emitted a panicked screech as it frantically dodged chunks of falling rock.

"Aerodactyl, help us get out of this cavern, quick!" Lance shouted, and the pokemon swooped down and picked him and Clair up on its back, heading for the plateau above Eusine.

"Return, Dragonair!" Clair called, holding up her pokeball. Her dragon was transformed into a beam of red light just as a huge chunk of the wall landed exactly where it had been.

Aerodactyl delivered Clair and Lance to safety (it appeared that whatever had been producing the blasts had stopped for the moment) at the top of the rock wall. Then, Lance heard someone yell in a panicked voice,

"No! Don't leave me! _Help!_"

Clair and Lance exchanged knowing looks. _Eusine, _Lance thought bitterly. Sighing, he reasoned, _Well, he did betray us, but we can't just let him die. _

"Aerodactyl," Lance ordered his pokemon, "go down and get Eusine. Hurry, before it's too late!"

The pokemon looked at its trainer skeptically, but it obeyed. Lance and Clair watched as Aerodactyl dove down, hoisted Eusine up onto its back, and soared back to them, screeching in displeasure as its rider held onto its neck for dear life, constricting its throat uncomfortably.

Aerodactyl returned just in time; just moments after it landed at the top of the rock wall with Eusine, the rest of the cavern's ceiling collapsed, filling it almost entirely with rocks and dirt. _I hope there's another way out, _Lance thought uneasily. He knew the tunnels were connected, but it could take days to find an alternate exit… _Where's the map? _he wondered, feeling around in his pockets for where he had stashed it.

"My savior," Eusine gushed to Lance, falling to his knees dramatically, "thank you for your mercy, your generosity!"

"Shut up," Clair snarled, forcing Eusine to drop the act. "You're a liar and a thief, and you were only using us to get to Lugia."

Eusine sighed forlornly. "If you only knew my story, you'd understand…" he began.

"Give me back my Silver Wing, or I'm not listening to a word you say," Clair snapped, interrupting him.

As if it pained him to do so, Eusine untied the twine that held the Silver Wing around his neck, removing the small metallic object and handing it back to its rightful owner.

"_Thank _you," Clair said heatedly as she snatched the Silver Wing out of his hand.

Eusine took a deep breath again, crossing his legs under him and slouching in defeat.

"I mean," Clair continued, "I thought you saved my life because, I don't know, you _cared _about me or something, but no. You were just looking for an opportunity to steal from me. That's sick!"

Usually, Lance attempted to keep Clair's temper in check when he was around her, but, in this case, he thought Eusine deserved what was coming to him, and he stayed out of it.

"Actually," Eusine told her timidly, "I really did save you for the sake of saving you, but the Silver Wing was so conveniently placed…"

"You're only making your case worse," Clair interrupted crossly.

She threw her hands up into the air exasperatedly before joining Eusine on the floor, sitting cross legged and resting her chin in her hand.

"So," she said dryly, "what's your sob story? Not that it matters."

"Oh, please, Clair," Lance couldn't help but interject, "you don't mean you're actually going to give him the time of day."

"I've got nothing better to do," she shot back, "and I'm curious, okay?"

"Curiosity's fine," Lance remarked cuttingly. "In fact, I'm curious about something myself." He turned to Eusine and demanded, "Apparently, you have no problem with lying and stealing in order to get what you want. Would you stop at murder?"

Eusine appeared taken aback. "Why, I'd never—"

"Be honest when you answer this, or there will be consequences," Lance interrupted. "Was it you that extinguished Ho-Oh's flame and killed my great uncle?"

Clair sighed. "Lance…"

"Let him answer!"

Lance's buried anger was quickly rising to the surface, and he didn't have the patience for Eusine's antics.

"Of course not!" Eusine exclaimed. "I may have gotten carried away by my desire to catch a legendary pokemon today, but I would never disturb such a sacred shrine, nor would I harm someone in that way. I am simply not capable of it."

Lance had to admit, Eusine's clear blue eyes _looked_ honest. However, Lance was not ready to dismiss the possibility that the man was only deceiving them again.

"This is what I don't understand, Eusine," Clair said. "You're obviously a very strong trainer already; judging by the way you battled back there, I don't think you'd have any difficulty becoming Champion at all now. So why did you feel you _had_ to catch a legendary pokemon at all costs?"

Seizing the opportunity, Eusine began, "When I was just a child, my grandfather taught me all about the legends of mystical pokemon— pokemon that few, if any, trainers had ever seen. He told of two guardians— Ho-Oh and Lugia— that controlled the skies and seas, respectively."

He paused, looking to Lance and Clair for permission to continue.

"Go on," Clair urged him impatiently.

"My grandfather taught me how to catch and train pokemon. He told me that, one day, if I became accomplished as a trainer and treated my pokemon with trust and love, I might become worthy of encountering a legendary pokemon myself. For my birthday one year, he gifted me with the Rainbow Wing, and he said that maybe, if I became strong enough, I could be the first to capture one of the legendaries."

Suddenly, the man's face fell. Lance somehow got the impression that, deep down, Eusine was truly sad about this part of his story, rather than simply spouting this ridiculous tale as a method of compensation for deceiving him and Clair.

"When I was nine, my grandfather disappeared. Before leaving, he had told me he planned to search for Suicune. But he never returned, and I assume he never encountered the pokemon he sought."

Lance watched his cousin, who appeared to be listening to Eusine intently. _Clair probably relates to him more than I ever could, _he thought. _Before my great uncle— Clair's grandfather— died, he was her closest family member._

But it would have taken a lot for Lance to soften completely to Eusine after what he'd done.

"Right before that time, my parents had left to travel the world, and I was passed from relative to relative, never knowing my place or my purpose. But I promised myself that I would find— and catch— Suicune one day, always holding the hope that, when I did, my grandfather would be there, waiting to congratulate me."

He smiled sadly, seeming to gaze ahead at something that was only in his mind.

"Now," he added, "it has been so many years that my grandfather couldn't possibly be alive anymore, but, until today, I still held the hope deep down that I would find the Bringer of Wind one day and capture it."

"I'd say that makes perfect sense," Clair said skeptically, "except for one thing— you stole my _Silver Wing. _You obviously just wanted your hands on a legendary pokemon; you didn't care if it was Suicune or not!"

"That's true, I did have the desire to catch a legendary pokemon in general," Eusine admitted, "but when I saw Suicune… I knew I was destined to be its trainer!"

Slumping, he sighed and lamented, "But that destiny was shattered along with my Myth Ball."

Lance frowned, not completely satisfied with Eusine's explanation, but the trainer was the least of his worries at the moment.

"Well, you're not forgiven," Clair told Eusine irritably.

"That's understandable," he replied casually.

As if Clair had read Lance's mind, she remarked, "Well, this has been fun, but we still haven't found Lugia, and we don't have long until the storm comes in. Whadaya say we go on a short wild pokemon chase, and then find a way out of here?"

"Sounds like a plan," Lance concurred.

"I'm in," said Eusine.

"Nobody asked you," Clair and Lance retaliated crossly, in unison.

Clair and Eusine stood up, joining Lance, and the three of them turned around, ready to continue their journey.

Lance was startled when he found himself staring at a pair of the largest eyes he'd ever seen, blinking at him curiously.

"Never mind… looks like we won't need a wild pokemon chase after all."


	14. 0D

Author's Note:

Sorry to prolong the cliffhanger with Jessie and James, but this chapter really needs to come first. Once again, college has hit me with its full force, so I may take longer to reply to reviews and messages. Thank you to **MyNoseAgreesWithMe, StarWriterWG**, **Anla'shok**, and **DiamondTopaz** for reviewing. I always appreciate your feedback!

~TheFrogFromHell

**0D**

**Hello.**

Clair couldn't stop gazing into Lugia's coal-black eyes; they were so dark and so large that she could see her reflection in them, two mini-Clairs staring back at her.

The cavern they were in was much smaller than the one that they'd escaped from (before it had collapsed, anyway), and its ceiling was too low for Lugia to stand up to its full height. However, its vast white wings filled the grotto, spilling over ground and rocks like a blanket of snow.

"Err… hi," Clair said back to the pokemon, who seemed to be as fascinated by her as she was by it.

Clair was startled as the pokemon made a strange noise. It was something between a birdlike warble and… a chuckle? _Is Lugia laughing at us? _she wondered. The notion seemed completely surreal.

**You look funny, **it projected, curving the corners of its wide mouth up into what Clair thought was an expression of amusement.

"Huh?" she heard Lance ask. She looked over at her cousin, who was standing perfectly still, gawking amazedly at the creature. Eusine, behind them, had a similar expression, though he appeared slightly more composed.

**I have never seen humans like you before, **Lugia explained.

"What do you mean?" Clair inquired. _So, Lugia's actually met other humans before?_

**Your hair and clothes,** it elaborated. **They're so many different colors!**

Lance folded his arms. "Well, my hair color is completely natural, and so is Clair's. But don't ask about Willy Wonka over here." He gestured to Eusine, who immediately took offense.

"I'll have you know that I have all my suits custom made," he huffed irritably.

The pokemon chortled again. _It's really kind of a pleasant sound, _Clair thought, smiling to herself. Once again, she clutched her Silver Wing, happy to have it returned to her. She noticed that, although Lugia's wings were white and not silver, they had a glossy, almost metallic luster to them, making them appear similar to the Silver Wing.

Eusine, who still looked disgruntled, asked Lugia heatedly, "Why did you destroy my Myth Ball before I could capture Suicune? Am I truly 'not worthy' of capturing it? I find that difficult to believe."

_Ugh, Eusine… you have worse timing than a stopwatch missing its batteries, _Clair thought, shaking her head.

**If you were worthy, **Lugia projected, **you would not be asking me that question.**

Eusine, irate, opened his mouth to object, when Lugia abruptly went silent, cringing as if it was suffering. Its wings shook terribly, and it made a few faint, pained screeches. Clair noticed that the dark blue, sharp appendages on its back were raised.

"What's wrong with it?" Lance asked Clair.

"How should I know?" Clair replied. "I don't know any more than you do!"

Sighing, the two turned around to look at Eusine.

"I… I do not understand either," he admitted, watching the pokemon with concern. "Perhaps… it is summoning the storm!"

That was worrisome. _There are less than three days left now until the storm is supposed to hit Blackthorn, _she recalled. _Maybe Eusine's right!_

Slowly, the pokemon's tremors lessened in frequency, and it appeared relieved.

**No,** it projected after a moment of rest.

"No, what?" Lance questioned.

**No… I am not the cause of the storms,** it responded.

Clair and Lance exchanged incredulous looks. _So the director was wrong, then? _Clair thought. _He was right about the Silver Wing… I'd been so sure…_

"Wait," Eusine interjected, shoving past Clair and Lance in order to stand face to face with Lugia. "How can that be? Are all of the ancient legends wrong?"

**I don't know anything about human legends, **Lugia replied, shaking its enormous head side to side slowly. **However, my existence is tied to the storms— that is true. Perhaps the legends have just been interpreted incorrectly.**

Eusine looked displeased.

"You're tied to the storms, but you don't cause them?" Clair asked, completely confused.

**I am the Keeper of Storms, **the pokemon answered. **Since I can remember, I have kept the storms at bay. My purpose is to maintain balance and harmony in the universe. **

"The Keeper of Storms," Eusine repeated, gazing at the cavern's sandy floor contemplatively.

"So… if you're meant to keep the storms from coming, then why are they getting so bad now?" Lance inquired.

**When the universe is in balance, all of its elements are also in balance, **Lugia explained. **Wind, water, fire, earth… they are all synchronized together.**

"So what's happening now?" Clair asked, cutting to the chase. "Why are the storms suddenly just getting worse and worse? Does it really mean the world is ending?"

**The universe… there is something wrong with it. It's inconsistent. I'm trying to hold it together, but I feel like I'm being pulled in opposite directions. I feel… the end is near.**

Again, the pokemon froze, shuddering and wincing in pain.

"I feel bad for it," Clair said to her cousin as she watched Lugia with sympathy."I wish we could help… but, somehow, I don't think that potions or a pokemon center would do it any good."

Aerodactyl, who Lance still hadn't recalled, screeched worriedly.

"None of this was in the scriptures," Eusine commented tensely, seemingly only to himself. "How could the sages have been so mistaken?"

Lugia recovered a little more quickly this time, but it still seemed distraught.

**I cannot continue this much longer, **Lugia projected forlornly. **I am becoming weaker each day from my efforts. If this imbalance is not corrected, I fear I will die.**

Clair, Lance, and Eusine gasped.

_Die? _Clair questioned mentally. _I have never heard of a legendary pokemon dying, not even in stories. _

"What can we do to stop this?" asked Lance, and Clair heard panic in her cousin's voice.

**It might be too late already, **Lugia replied, **but if the source of the imbalance could be found… and destroyed… then harmony could be restored.**

"The source," Clair repeated. _When we were at Eusine's house, James said something about the source being a human!_

"And where could we find this source, Lugia?" Eusine inquired, surprising Clair.

**In the east, **Lugia responded. **Entei thinks that it is a human, a human with yellow hair. Whether or not the Bringer of Fire is correct, I do not know.**

"The east!" Eusine cried. "Jessie and James said that Raikou spoke of the east as well!"

Clair and Lance exchanged puzzled glances.

"Where in the east?" Lance asked.

**I cannot answer precisely, **Lugia communicated. **It is… muddled. And, as the imbalance worsens, it becomes more difficult to tell.**

_Great, _Clair thought sarcastically, _that's a big help. Anything east of here is fair game, I guess._

Again, the pokemon recoiled, and this time its entire body was overcome with tremors. This episode was worse than the last two, and Lugia took several minutes to return to normal. Clair watched with apprehension, wondering how they were ever going to find "the source" in less than three days.

When Lugia finally recovered, it projected urgently, **You must hurry. The moment I am unable to control the storms, the world will be ripped apart. I have little hope that this problem can be solved in time, but if there is even a chance, you must try.**

"Okay," Clair agreed, looking to her cousin for permission, and he nodded. "We'll try our hardest to find the source. But first, we have to get out of here. Do you know the way?"

**The nearest exit has collapsed, **Lugia replied, **and the next one would take days to reach. **

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Eusine inquired restlessly.

**I can use my psychic powers to teleport you back to the mainland, **the pokemon offered. **Normally, I could send you farther, but at this time I am far weaker than usual.**

"Alright, let's do it," said Lance readily. "We don't have much time, so we'd better get started now."

**Understood, **Lugia agreed. **Return your pokemon, and hold onto each other tightly. That will make it easier for me to transport you together.**

Lance recalled Aerodactyl, then wrapped his arm around Clair's waist snugly. Eusine gazed at Clair with a rather unattractive expression of desperation, and she sighed and reluctantly grabbed his arm, gripping it firmly with her own.

Clair blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she was standing on the beach outside Olivine City. The ocean looked just the same as it had before, with wild, crashing waves visible in every direction, except that now the sun was setting in the distance, making the waves turn darker and darker as it faded away.

Beside her, Lance exhaled slowly as if calming himself.

"What now?" he asked Clair, and she heard doubt creeping back into his voice. _Don't do this to me, Lance, _she thought. _We have to believe we can do this. It's the only chance we've got._

"First things first," Clair answered, trying to sound as optimistic as she could. "We've got to get back to Ecruteak."

"What's in Ecruteak?" Eusine inquired.

"Your house," Clair told him sharply, raising an eyebrow.

"You can't seriously think we're going to take you with us after that stunt you pulled back there?" Lance asked incredulously.

"But…" Eusine protested, fidgeting anxiously, "I'm reformed! I have learned much from my enlightening experience with the legendaries!"

Clair sighed. "I think you just learned that it's a really bad idea to try to capture a legendary pokemon."

"I won't do it again," Eusine insisted, giving Clair a pleading look.

"Sorry," Lance told him frankly, "but we can't trust you any more than we'd trust anyone else who tried to steal from us."

Eusine clenched his jaw, his lips pressed together in a tight line.

_He's not happy about this, _Clair knew, _but there's no way we're letting him come along._

The two flew back to Ecruteak on the backs of Lance's dragonite in silence. Clair's mind was occupied with thoughts and worries about the journey to come, and she figured the same was true of her cousin, while Eusine sulked behind them. Every now and then, Clair caught him glowering at her resentfully, and she just rolled her eyes.

"Clair, something's really bothering me about this," Lance said to her as they flew, quietly enough that Eusine couldn't overhear. "If we do find this person— the source— do we have to kill him or her in order to save the world?"

Clair had already considered that as well. "I don't know," she replied uneasily, "but I hope not. Maybe there will be some other way. We won't know until we find the person, anyway."

The two landed in front of Eusine's house to see that there was someone knocking on the front door. The man was of average height with a muscular build, and he wore a purple bandana wrapped around his light blond head.

Clair recognized him right away from the Johto Gym Leaders Council.

As the three trainers landed, Morty turned around, startled by the noise of their dragons' wings.

"Hello, Clair," the Ecruteak Gym Leader said, looking puzzled, "Lance." He acknowledged the dragon masters with a nod. Then, he appeared to notice Eusine, who had touched down behind them.

"Eusine… what are you doing? I hadn't heard from you in several days, so I came to check on you. I had no idea you even knew Clair and Lance."

"Well, I just met them yesterday," Eusine explained, walking up to Morty, who eyed his still-damp, battered purple suit. "We went on a legendary pokemon search together. Morty, you wouldn't believe what I saw—"

"Or what he did," Clair interjected. "He led us to the Whirl Islands in order to steal my Silver Wing and try to catch Lugia himself."

"What?" Morty asked in alarm. "Eusine… you didn't really try to catch Lugia, did you?"

"No," Eusine answered definitively, scoffing. "I didn't. That's ridiculous."

"Don't twist the truth, Eusine," Lance warned him crossly. To Morty, he said, "I think he had planned to catch Lugia, but he happened to run into Suicune first."

"_Suicune?_" inquired Morty, his jaw dropping. "You mean, you actually saw it?"

"I saw it and spoke to it, Morty," Eusine replied in an awestruck, breathy voice. "I stood just a few inches away from it, face to face. It was magnificent."

_Maybe Eusine's whole "mystical man, legendary pokemon expert" thing is all an act, _Clair considered. _But it's pointless to us now— we've seen his true colors._

"Yeah, and you tried to capture it," Lance added dryly. "You were pretty hard on it, too, buddy, if I recall."

Eusine glowered at Lance, who shrugged.

Morty sighed, turning to his friend. "Eusine, I knew you would get carried away one day. You really need to cool it with the Suicune thing, you know that?"

Eusine said nothing but continued to hold a sour expression on his face.

Lance, evidently not quite finished ranting about Eusine's behavior, began, "Thankfully, his custom pokeball was destroyed before we got to Lugia, or we—"

"You met _Lugia _too?"

Clair and Lance exchanged exasperated looks. _I trust Morty, _Clair thought, remembering the pleasant encounters with the gym leader she'd had in the past, _and I know he'd love to hear about Lugia. Plus, I'm so tired and hungry, and Lance probably is, too… maybe we can stay here in Ecruteak for just a few minutes._

"It's a long story," Clair said, "but… I'd be happy to explain it to you… maybe over dinner?"

Morty agreed gladly and promptly invited them to his home (Clair had hardly found it appropriate to ask Eusine to make them dinner), which was not far away. The three travelers had still been wet and freezing from the journey, so Morty had brought them some towels to dry themselves off with. While their host prepared their meal, Clair and Lance watched the news on his television. Eusine, evidently still upset from the day's events and from the topic of their conversation earlier, had retreated to some room in the back of the house to "be alone", which was more than fine with Clair.

"The storm front is drawing closer and closer to eastern Johto," reported the newscaster on the television screen. "We expect to observe a marked temperature drop and some light to moderate precipitation tomorrow, but the worst of the storm is predicted to hit Friday evening."

A map of the Johto region was shown onscreen, and Clair gasped in alarm when she saw the enormous mass of blue and white swirls approaching its corner. _It looks like it's just going to plow right through New Bark Town on its way to Blackthorn, _she observed fretfully.

"The storm appears to be a bizarre combination of fast winds, snowfall, and the lowest temperatures the region has ever seen. Residents of Newbark, Cherrygrove, and Blackthorn cities are all being asked to evacuate."

"Hopefully Pryce obeys the warnings this time," Lance remarked, and Clair nodded. _I should call and check in with him, _she thought. _I wonder how he's doing with leading the gym. His ice-type pokemon are probably confusing the challengers… that is, if there have been any challengers since the storm in Mahogany hit._

Morty appeared in the living room's doorway, carrying a platter of cheese, crackers, and assorted vegetables.

"Here are some snacks to hold you until the main course is done," he told them, setting the platter down on the coffee table that stood in front of Lance and Clair. "I just kinda had to throw something together… hope you don't mind."

"It's no problem at all, Morty," Lance assured him, eagerly reaching for a cracker.

"Hey Morty, do you think I could use your phone? I have a couple of calls I need to make," Clair asked politely.

"Sure, go ahead. There's one in the hall by the door." He pointed to an open doorway across the room.

"Thanks," Clair said, standing up and making her way over to it.

Sure enough, there was a cordless phone mounted on the wall in the hallway. It was dark here, and Clair tried to find where the light switch was, but couldn't.

She dialed her own home number, hoping that Pryce would be there. _It's after six, _she mused. _He's probably done at the gym by now._

The phone rang three times before Pryce's voice croaked, "Hello?"

"Hi Pryce, this is Clair," she said.

"Who?"

Clair realized she hadn't been speaking loudly enough. "It's Clair," she repeated, projecting her voice more.

"Ah, excellent! Hello, Clair. How have you been finding your travels?"

"Tough," Clair admitted, "but you won't believe this— we met two legendary pokemon today!"

"Well, if anyone is worthy of meeting a legendary, it is the young masters of the Dragon Clan," Pryce remarked fondly. Clair didn't bother to mention that they couldn't exactly be called the "young masters" anymore, since they were both in their thirties. "Which pokemon were they?"

"First, we met Suicune at the entrance to the Whirl Islands. We were traveling with this… man, who actually tried to capture it. Anyway, Lugia wasn't happy about that, so it attacked him, and then Suicune ran away. After that, we got to talk to Lugia for quite a while."

Clair realized that, even in her own ears, her story sounded unbelievable. _If Pryce wouldn't even listen to me about the blizzard warnings, there's no way he's going to believe this,_ she thought, already anticipating his reaction.

Oddly enough, the man responded with, "Marvelous! To think that you young dragon masters actually spoke to one of the great legends… It must be fate. Did it speak of the end of the world, as you had hoped it would?"

"Yes," Clair began, "well… sort of. Listen, Pryce— Lugia's not the source of the storms, like we'd thought. It's actually a human, I guess, who's causing the world's imbalance. Lugia's been trying to hold it all together."

"A human," Pryce responded, sounding astonished. "How curious…"

"Lugia said we don't have much time until the storms destroy the world. Soon, Lance and I will be leaving to go search for this person, whoever it is," Clair explained. "Lugia also said it might be a person with blond hair, which doesn't exactly narrow it down much."

"It sounds very difficult," Pryce acknowledged, "but, like the sunrise that ends even the darkest night, you and Lance give me— and all of Johto— hope."

"Oh. Um—" Clair chewed her lip uncomfortably, "—thanks." She never knew how to respond to Pryce's flowery metaphors. Remembering why she'd called in the first place, she inquired, "Pryce, there is another storm coming in two days. You'll be out of Blackthorn by then, right?"

"Of course," Pryce agreed. "The devastating events that occurred in Mahogany Town taught me a lesson."

Clair breathed a sigh of relief.

"And Clair," Pryce continued, to her surprise, "I apologize for disregarding your warnings about the last blizzard. I admit that being a trainer of ice-type pokemon makes me overconfident in my abilities to handle harsh weather. Also…" he paused, and Clair heard him take a deep breath. "I always think of Lance as your elder, and sometimes I forget that you are both adults. You've got a good head on your shoulders, and that shouldn't be overlooked."

_I didn't expect this, _Clair thought, taken aback by Pryce's statement.

"Umm… thank you," Clair replied a little awkwardly, but sincerely nonetheless.

Changing the subject, Pryce said, "I will be leaving Blackthorn tomorrow. I plan to take shelter in Violet City with an old friend. There is supposed to be a meeting there with those Rocket folks again tomorrow… I don't care for them much, but I'd like to know what's going on."

_Rocket Inc., _Clair recalled. _How could I forget about them? And…_ she gasped. _Jessie and James! They were supposed to meet with the CEO tonight, in Goldenrod City. I wonder how it's going…_

"Well, let me know everything you find out," Clair told Pryce. "I have to go… I just remembered something important I have to do."

"Alright, dragon master," Pryce told her. "I have faith that your quest will be successful. Take care."

Clair said goodbye and hung up the phone. Her hand went to her Silver Wing. As she clutched the cool metal, she thought, _I hope Pryce's faith isn't wasted. Even Lugia didn't think we had much of a chance…_

She studied the Silver Wing, which gleamed even in the darkness of the hallway. _Even after that rough journey today, it still looks as polished and beautiful as when the director gave it to me._

A thought struck her. _The director! I should call him and tell him I actually met Lugia!_

She searched around in her pocket for the business card the director had given her. She found it wet and crumpled, with the lettering difficult to read, but not indecipherable.

She dialed the number on the card, feeling a little strange. _What if I'm just bothering him?_ she thought briefly, but something told her the director ("Mr. Jacoby", Clair realized she'd have to call him) would want to hear about her encounter with the legendary pokemon.

She heard someone pick up the phone, and realized that, strangely, her heart was racing. _Why am I so nervous about this? _she wondered.

"Hello?"

Clair inhaled sharply. The answerer was female, and the tone of her voice sounded hurried and rather nasty.

"Uh, hi," Clair said hesitantly. "Er… is Mr. Jacoby, the director, there?"

"No. He doesn't work here anymore. I am Ariana, the new director of Goldenrod's Radio Tower," the woman replied crossly.

"Oh," Clair replied, bothered by Ariana's attitude. "That's funny, because I talked to Mr. Jacoby just a few days ago, and—"

"I already told you, he doesn't work here anymore. If you have a question, you're going to have to talk to me."

Oddly, Clair heard a lot of background noise on the other line; it sounded like there were people arguing heatedly. _What's going _on_ over there? _Clair wondered.

"Um… no, I don't have a question," Clair said sharply, matching Ariana's irritable tone.

"Fine. Then don't waste my time. Goodbye."

She promptly hung up the phone.

_What was that?! _Clair thought in shock. _I'd think that Mr. Jacoby gave me the wrong number, but Ariana did mention his name… this is bizarre._

"Clair," she heard Lance's voice call from the living room, "what's the hold up? Dinner's ready!"

Clair, still shaking her head at her conversation with the new director, walked back into the living room and then followed her cousin to Morty's kitchen.

The kitchen table was round and very small, so she and Lance had to squeeze up next to each other to make room for four places. Morty had prepared chicken, rice, and string beans for them. There was a vegetarian version for Eusine set in front of an empty seat, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

"I guess Eusine's still upset," Morty commented. However, he didn't wait for his friend to arrive to start eating; he dug right into his chicken, and Clair and Lance did the same. "He can be a bit… unreasonable sometimes," Morty pointed out between bites.

"We noticed," Lance remarked.

"Thanks for dinner, by the way," Clair told Morty.

"No problem," Morty replied, grinning. "But you've got to hold up your end of the bargain— you still haven't told me about Lugia!"

Animatedly, Clair and Lance described to Morty everything about their journey to the Whirl Islands: meeting Suicune, Eusine trying to catch it, the tunnel collapsing, and, finally, what Lugia had told them about the end of the world.

Morty simply listened with wide-eyed curiosity, quickly finishing his chicken and rice and munching on his string beans.

"We're only here for a little while," Clair explained, "and then we're leaving to go search for this person 'in the east'."

Morty nodded. "If what Lugia said is true… then you have been granted an enormous responsibility. If there is any way I can assist you, please let me know. My expertise is mostly in the area of ghost-type pokemon, but perhaps my skills could be of use."

"Thanks, Morty," Lance said sincerely, "but what we really need is someone to keep an eye on Eusine… he was pretty upset that we wouldn't let him come with us. I almost feel like we should report him to the authorities, after he stole from my cousin and tried to capture Suicune like that."

"Lance…" Clair began, wanting to be done discussing the issue.

Morty sighed.

"On Eusine's behalf, I apologize," the gym leader said. "He and I have been friends since we were kids, and he's always had this… obsession with legendary pokemon, especially Suicune. It got really bad right after his grandfather left, and he's never really recovered from it, I guess. I didn't really think he'd ever try to capture a legendary, but… it doesn't surprise me all that much, either."

_So the "grandfather" story was true, _Clair thought. She'd had a feeling it was, but now it was confirmed.

"Just keep him occupied while we're gone," Clair told Morty. "And… maybe keep him away from magical objects for a while."

"Understood," Morty confirmed, nodding.

The three had finished their dinners, and Lance cleared his throat and announced, "I think it's time we got going. I know it's late, but if Clair and I can make some progress tonight, before it gets cold…"

"Yes, that sounds wise," Morty agreed.

"Sorry to eat and run," Clair said sincerely.

The two exited the house, and Morty bid them goodbye and wished them good luck. Lance released two of his dragonite, and he and Clair mounted them, waving as they took off.

"Where should we go first?" Lance inquired as they flew.

Remembering a thought she'd had at the house, Clair suggested, "Well, Jessie, James, and Meowth were supposed to talk to the CEO of Rocket, Inc. tonight, in Goldenrod City. They're probably just getting done with their dinner meeting now. Don't you think maybe we should check on them before we head out? They might have some useful information… and maybe we should bring them with us."

Lance burst out laughing. "Good one, Clair," he joked. Then, he noticed Clair's serious expression and the smile faded from his features.

"You have to be joking," he said flatly.

"Actually, no. Who knows where we'll have to go to find this person, Lance? We might need some extra fire power."

Lance, once again, erupted into a fit of laughter. "Fire power? More like _mis_fire power. Every move they make is an accident waiting to happen. Do you not remember the Repel incident?"

Clair frowned. "Okay, maybe you have a point. But we still need to find out what they learned from the CEO. Who knows, maybe the blond person Lugia mentioned is a member of Rocket, Inc.?"


	15. 0E

Author's Note:

Okay, finally back to Jessie and James! This is a super long chapter, too, with some twists and turns. This installment also includes some coarse language, so be warned.

As always, I appreciate your feedback!

Until next week,

~TheFrogFromHell

**0E**

"We didn't come here to try to trick Giovanni, I swear!" Jessie pleaded desperately as she was led, blindfolded, by two armed security guards down the spiral staircase, out of the mansion, and down Giovanni's long walkway. It was now heavily raining outside, and the freezing droplets of water pelted Jessie's face, hair, and shoulders, making her shiver. She heard the sound of an engine starting up and figured she was being escorted to a vehicle. _Where are they taking me? _she wondered fearfully. "Hey, watch the hair!" she protested angrily as one of the guards gripped the top of her head and roughly forced her through the vehicle's door.

As the vehicle began to move, Jessie tried not to panic. She hadn't heard the voices of James or Meowth since she'd been in Giovanni's dining room, and that was alarming to her. _What did the other guards do with them?_

As terrified as Jessie was, she couldn't help but allow another thought to enter her head. _We failed again, _she thought dejectedly. _All we'd needed to do was get information, and we couldn't even do _that _right. I was actually starting to consider James's idea of "turning over a new leaf", but I guess we were just barking up the wrong tree._

The guards had tied Jessie's hands behind her back at the same time they'd blindfolded her, so her movements were greatly restricted. Not that she would have tried to escape anyway; feeling the gun pressed to her head and hearing the "click" of the safety being released earlier had been enough to discourage such behavior. However, she could move her fingers, and she felt around as much as she could behind her back to see if they had taken her belt, which held her pokeballs.

Unsurprisingly, she found it gone. _I guess you'd have to be a pretty bad criminal to leave a captive with pokemon that could battle, _she figured. _Not even James and I would have made that mistake._

Jessie wasn't in the car for long before she felt it slow to a stop. She heard car doors slamming, and then the one closest to her opening. Two men (Jessie assumed they were the guards from before) removed her from the car, pulling her along to some unknown place.

They were only outside for a few seconds before Jessie heard a door swing open, and then the three of them stepped into a building of some sorts. They didn't walk far before descending down a flight of stairs, and then Jessie could hear the sounds of footsteps— her own, and the guards'—echoing off the walls, informing her that the room was large and mostly empty.

"I still don't see how I deserve this," Jessie argued again, though she doubted her captors would pay her any mind. "I was just having a casual dinner conversation, with only the purest of intentions, and then… _this_."

As she had predicted, neither of the guards responded to her comment. However, one of them did say cryptically to the other,

"Which room?"

"Two fifty-five," came the reply.

_Room two fifty-five? _Jessie thought in confusion. _What, is this a hotel or something?_

In just a few moments, she discovered that it most definitely wasn't.

They passed through another doorway and then descended down a flight of stairs into a much smaller (or, Jessie deduced it was smaller, since she couldn't hear echoes anymore), colder space. The floor here did not feel as polished, and Jessie guessed it was made of concrete. They seemed to keep walking for a long time, making twists and turns, and they passed through another door at some point. It felt to Jessie as if they were inside a maze. _I don't think I could find my way out of here even if I _wasn't_ blindfolded, _she thought.

Finally, they stopped walking, and Jessie heard a sequence of beeps and the "click" of the lock of another door opening. _A combination_, Jessie figured. She tried to remember how many beeps there had been. _Was it four, or five? Damn… _

They began advancing forward again, and Jessie was startled when she heard a voice call loudly,

"Hey! Are you two shitheads finally bringing me some food? It's been over a day since you've given me anything! Are you just gonna let me die here?"

"That would be a blessing," Jessie heard one of the guards whisper to the other. "This kid hasn't shut up since he got here five days ago."

Jessie heard a rusty metal door opening, and her restraints and blindfold were quickly removed as she was thrown to the floor (which was, in fact, concrete— damp, filthy concrete).

Dazed, Jessie looked around and found that she was in a cell, similar to one that would be found in a jail or prison, except that it had no bed. Jessie noticed a disgusting looking toilet on one side of the cell, and she grimaced. _I hope I'm not here long enough to have to use that._

She watched the guards lock the cell's door, which was made of metal, sturdy-looking bars.

Sitting next to her in the cell was a dirty, skinny teenaged boy, who Jessie figured had been the one yelling at the guards. He definitely seemed like he'd been trapped here awhile— the grease in his blond hair and his strong body odor told Jessie he probably hadn't bathed in a week.

The boy scowled at the guards with hatred in his emerald eyes.

"So," he spat sardonically, "I ask you for food, and you bring me a roommate? Great. Now you'll have two bodies to clean up."

Jessie looked around nervously. _Bodies?_ She looked back at the guards, who were dressed in all black attire and had most of their faces covered, probably to conceal their identities. One was short and stocky, and the other was a little taller and much thinner. The short one held a long, rusty key, which he'd used to lock them in, in his gloved hand.

"We'll bring you food and water soon," said the taller guard, "_if _you learn to keep your smart-ass mouth shut."

"I'll say what I want," the boy retaliated. "I know you guys will feed me eventually; the last thing Rocket Inc. needs is more blood on its hands, especially when you're trying to 'keep up your public image'."

He leaned forward and spat at the guards. "You fuckers make me sick."

The shorter guard with the key kicked the bars of the cell hard, rattling Jessie and the blond boy.

"Fuck you," the guard growled furiously, putting his face up to the bars and spitting right in the kid's face. "We may have orders to keep you alive, but that doesn't mean we can't make your life a living hell."

The guards turned around and began to walk away.

"Dumb-ass kid," Jessie heard the shorter guard tell his companion.

Jessie turned to the offender, who wiped the guard's spit off his face with his dirty sleeve. _He's so young,_ Jessie observed. _I wonder why they're keeping him here. He does seem to know something about Rocket Inc…_

"What?" the blond boy snapped irritably, and Jessie realized she'd been staring.

"Nothing," she replied, annoyed at the boy's tone but also feeling a little sorry for him.

_Did the same organization that James and I used to work for really do this to him? _she thought. _James and I never saw any of the really ugly stuff like this, at least, not until right before we left… _

Jessie and James, for most of the time they'd been employed by Giovanni, had only ever been asked to steal people's pokemon, and Jessie had become accustomed to the job, though perhaps not particularly skilled at it. Taking someone's pokemon, while not the most morally sound occupation, was definitely not the worst thing one could do to a person. After all, that person could always just catch another one if needed.

It was really only when Jessie had started working at the corporate office in Celadon City that she had started to feel bothered by the tasks she'd been asked to do. There had been something vaguely sickening about sitting at a table during one of Rocket Inc.'s many meetings with its "partners", jotting down notes and providing refreshments for everyone, when Jessie had always known the abysmal, predetermined fates of the other parties before the meetings had even started. She'd smiled at Erika, Celadon's gym leader, while she had been well aware that her senior officers were secretly keeping tabs on her, gathering information about her "unsanitary" training facility, which would eventually cost her her gym leader's license.

She'd shaken the hand of Sabrina, Saffron City's gym leader, while knowing that, simultaneously, some Rocket Inc. undercover officers were arranging for her to have a mandated "psychiatric evaluation", which would be performed by yet another member of Rocket, Inc. Later, the gym leader would be declared "unstable and unfit to lead a gym" and eventually confined to Saffron City's Center for Mental Health.

Being asked to behave in such a nonchalant way while performing such sneaky, evil tasks had made Jessie uncomfortable, and she had eventually left Rocket Inc. because of it.

_Well, _she admitted internally, _that's not totally true._ A large part of why she had quit had been the rotten, condescending attitudes of her senior officers, and the fact that she and James worked at the corporate office for almost two years with no mention of a pay raise. Jessie did _not _like to be bossed around, and she especially despised it when it was coupled with lousy pay.

"Hello? Are you in there?" Jessie heard suddenly, the voice of her cellmate snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Uh… yeah. What?"

The boy frowned at her irritably. Despite his being so thin and filthy, Jessie could see that, with a bath and a few more pounds on him, he could be quite attractive.

"I asked you why they brought you in here."

The boy's question took Jessie by surprise. _Why _did _they bring me in here?_ she tried to remember. _I guess it was because Giovanni didn't believe we were just asking about legendary pokemon for research purposes._

"They brought me here because I asked too many questions," Jessie responded bitterly.

The blond boy nodded. "They don't like that," he agreed. "They don't like resistance."

"Why did they bring _you_ here?" Jessie asked him.

The boy sighed, apparently in frustration, and drew his knees into his chest.

"I'm here because I was stupid," he explained. "I yelled at those Rocket Inc. bastards while they were speaking at some meeting at the Lake of Rage. I figured that, in Johto, I still had the freedom to say what I wanted, but, obviously, I was wrong."

"In Johto?" Jessie inquired, interested. "Did you live in Kanto before?"

"Yeah, Vermillion City. I left just a few months after the suits got there. I guess Vermillion was one of the last cities that adopted their 'system'—" he snorted, "—if you can call it a system, that is. Anyway, Vermillion, then Pewter. At least, that's what I've heard. I had already run away to Johto by then."

_Wow, _Jessie thought, both astonished and terrified by this news. _When James and I left, Rocket Inc. was only in two cities!_

"A lot's changed since I've been to Kanto," Jessie commented.

"Yeah?" the boy inquired. "When'd you leave?"

"Fifteen years ago," Jessie answered.

"Damn," the blond acknowledged, looking surprised. "I bet it has— I gather a lot's changed since _I've _been there, and that was only two years ago."

This kid was perplexing to Jessie— he looked so young, and he'd run away when he was two years younger, even. Also, evidently, he didn't have any parents around to stop him from being kidnapped by Rocket, Inc.

"Where are your parents?" Jessie couldn't help but ask.

All the life in the boy appeared to drain out of him, and he suddenly looked weary and forlorn.

"I didn't just leave Vermillion to get away from Rocket, Inc.," he told her bitterly. "My parents were… difficult to live with."

Jessie thought about her parents and nodded in agreement. Part of the reason she'd joined Team Rocket, so many years ago now, was so that she'd be able to make enough money to leave their house.

"I think it's like that for everyone," she remarked.

"No," the boy snapped. "It was worse for me… much, much worse."

"O… kay," Jessie replied quietly, backing off. _Defensive, much?_

"No, I mean…" the boy sighed. "I'm… different. You wouldn't get it."

Jessie laughed aloud at that comment. _As if _my_ life has been conventional…_

"I never planned to leave," the boy continued, to Jessie's surprise. "I mean, I was miserable and daydreamed about it a lot, but I never actually thought I'd do it. Then, one day, I'd been training out in the tall grass next to the city, and I saw the S.S. Anne about to take off. Normally, I didn't really care about the S.S. Anne, since I saw it all the time, but that one day…" He peered ahead as if admiring something in the distance, even though all there was to see in the cell was concrete, metal, and filth. "…That one day, I just had the funny feeling that if I didn't get on that ship, I'd be stuck in Vermillion forever."

Jessie just nodded, unsure what to say in response.

"The funny thing is," the boy added, a shadow of a sad smile creeping onto his face, "a couple months after that, they really did shut down the S.S. Anne. From what I've heard, it's been out of operation ever since. Sometimes, following your instincts is the way to go, y'know?"

"I guess," Jessie replied unenthusiastically. _If following our instincts works so well, then why the heck did we end up _here_?_

Somewhere close by, a door opened, and Jessie heard footsteps approaching.

"Here ya go, you little shit," said the short guard, who was walking towards the cell holding two open cans of beans.

"That's _it_?" questioned the boy. "You haven't brought me _anything_ in over a day, and now I get a can of beans? I liked the other guards better. At least they brought side dishes."

"Your poor little tummy's really rumbling, huh, son?" the guard asked mockingly.

"Yeah," Jessie interjected, unable to stop herself, "'cause from the looks of you, _you _ate up all the side dishes!"

The man briefly glanced down at his protruding belly, then back at them. _I think I might have actually offended him, _Jessie thought with pride.

"You're just as feisty as your cellmate, huh?" he teased Jessie. "Well, just for that, I'll bring you some dessert. I'll just leave these here while I go get it." He set the cans down on the floor before leaving the room.

It took ten minutes for Jessie to realize that he had no intention of returning with dessert.

And the cans were sitting outside the bars of the cage, just barely out of reach.

_Great, _Jessie thought, _now we really are going to get nothing._

The blond boy sighed exasperatedly.

"Aww, fuck it," he remarked. "I've got to at least try."

_Try? _Jessie wondered. _Try what?_

Weirdly, the boy stared at the cans as if in a trance. He sat like that for over a minute, which Jessie found a little strange.

_What is he _doing_?_

"Come on," he muttered under his breath determinedly, "come on…"

Jessie wondered for a moment if there was a valid reason for this boy to have been locked up, until she noticed something incredible.

Slowly— less than a centimeter per second— the cans began to move towards them.

Jessie's jaw dropped.

"What the—"

"Shut up," the boy interrupted her shortly, "I have to focus."

The cans traveled another few centimeters forward, until they were just close enough to reach. Then, the boy collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily and appearing completely spent. Jessie reached out and grabbed the cans, which, thankfully, were small enough to fit between the bars of the door.

Once the cans were inside, Jessie turned to her cellmate, dumfounded.

"What... did you just… _do_?" she inquired in disbelief. She'd heard of pokemon using telekinesis, of course, but never a human. She'd thought it impossible.

"I told you," the boy replied, groaning and forcing himself to sit up. "I'm different."

He reached for one of the cans, held it up, and tipped it into his mouth like it was a can of cola.

_Eww,_ Jessie thought, wrinkling her nose in disgust before realizing that if she wanted any food, she'd have to do the same. _I can hold off for a while, _she decided. She had, at least, eaten a salad at Giovanni's mansion.

"You can have mine, too," Jessie offered the boy as he polished off his can of beans in under a minute.

"Thanks," he said immediately, reaching for Jessie's can and repeating the same process.

When he was done devouring the beans, he looked slightly less drained, which gave Jessie had an idea.

"If you can move things with your mind like that, do you think you can undo the lock on this door?"

The boy wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and shook his head sadly. "No; I've tried it already. I'm not very good at controlling my… talent, and moving the parts inside the lock would take precision, which I don't have. I've never had any training or anything."

Jessie frowned in disappointment.

"I don't usually like to do that around other people, but… this is a special situation I guess. I have to be careful sometimes, though."

"What do you mean 'careful'?" Jessie inquired.

"Um… well, y'know. It's complicated."

Jessie raised an eyebrow. _That's not really an explanation, _she thought, but the boy quickly changed the subject.

"So," he asked, "what did you say your name was?"

Caught off guard, Jessie replied clumsily, "Huh? Oh… um, Jessie." The boy nodded, and Jessie noticed that he looked quite a bit better after having had some food. _He must not have been kidding when he said they didn't feed him enough in here._

"What's your name?" Jessie asked in return, mildly curious.

"Fin."

…

It was raining.

It had started as a gentle pitter-patter outside Domino's window, but it had quickly escalated into the roar of fast-moving water droplets assaulting the mansion and everything else outside.

She hoped the noise of it wouldn't wake her son, who she'd put to bed a couple of hours ago after leaving the dinner table. At that time, she'd decided that she'd rather face her husband's wrath later than sit through another minute of that ridiculous dinner gathering. _I still don't understand why he ever invited them here, _she thought disgustedly. _Sitting with a bunch of idiots chatting about stupid odd jobs that they're obviously lying about having is just a pointless waste of time._

Not to mention that her husband had used the meeting as an opportunity to humiliate her yet again, though that was to be expected.

Laying on the bed in the master bedroom, Domino shifted positions restlessly. She had kicked off her shoes but was still clad in her white cocktail dress, sprawled out on top of the covers. Their soft, sleek, satiny material felt cold to the touch, and Domino shivered.

She glanced at the hands on the antique grandfather clock that stood across from the bed. It was five minutes before nine. _Giovanni's probably going to pull an all-nighter in his study again, making plans for whatever city he wants to take over next_, she thought.

She'd long since stopped trying to keep up with her husband's campaign. She hadn't been an integral part of the operation since they'd gained control of Vermillion City, which had been when about when she'd discovered she was pregnant. After Vermillion, Giovanni had told her he didn't want her to strain herself working on the Pewter City project, but Domino had conjectured that that was only an excuse to force her out of the organization.

Then, after taking hardly any time at all to celebrate his conquest of Kanto, Giovanni had moved onto his next project: Johto. This had seemed altogether futile to Domino, as Rocket Inc. had already earned them more money than they'd ever need at that point, and, honestly, The Black Tulip had been happier leading smaller scale Team Rocket missions than sitting back and watching her husband manipulate gym leaders and town government officials into giving him control of their cities.

_It was great at first, _Domino recalled. The prospect of having an entire city run by Rocket executives had been an exciting one, and she had initially felt very fortunate to be a part of Team Rocket's advancement to Rocket Inc. Especially since, back then, she'd been completely infatuated with her boss, who was now her distant, aggressive, manipulative husband.

Giovanni, of course, considered himself solely responsible for the creation of the corporation, but he had utilized many of Domino's ideas without ever crediting her. It had been Domino, actually, who had suggested they move away from under-the-table, illegal operations and towards practices that (outwardly, anyhow) complied with the region's legislation.

As Domino had come to find, the Pokemon League was intertwined with regions' governments more than most people knew. Gym-holding cities had substantially more influence on government decisions than did the cities without gyms, and all it took was controlling a high-population gym-holding city like Saffron or Celadon to overrule the votes of all the smaller cities like Pallet and Lavender. That was why, at Domino's suggestion, they had begun in Celadon City, first by buying out the Game Corner in order to boost their profits and market themselves, and then by taking control of the gym.

But that time felt so far behind her now. Now, there were only empty, meaningless victories in which Domino had no part.

She made a frustrated sound. Unable to relax, she rolled out of bed, sliding her feet into a pair of slippers before heading down to the kitchen. _Maybe I can find that bottle of brandy Jerome mentioned last night, _she hoped. Alcohol, as always, would be a welcome distraction from her troubled thoughts.

As she descended the staircase from the third floor, where the master bedroom was, down to the second, where the kitchen was located, she heard low voices conversing. She stopped in the middle of the staircase in order to eavesdrop.

"Giovanni thinks the man, 'James', I guess, was the brains of the operation," said one speaker to the other, who snickered, "and the other one was just an accomplice. Personally, I don't think either one of them had much brains, except maybe that smart-assed meowth."

The other one laughed. It was a horrible noise, Domino thought— almost more of a sickly wheezing.

"How stupid did they think Giovanni was, coming in and expecting to find out all of Rocket, Inc.'s private information?" he inquired mockingly.

Domino progressed a little further down the staircase, and she saw that the speakers were two of Giovanni's security guards— Terry and Marcus.

"Well, I'm not convinced that they were here for anything but dinner and drinks, to be honest. But if The Boss thinks they're a threat, I'm not one to argue with him," Marcus, the younger and less intelligent guard said.

_What are they talking about? _Domino wondered. _What did Giovanni do with Jessie and James? _

"I don't know how long he wants us to detain them. Carl and Blair took the redheaded bitch to the Underground, they said. I don't know why not the others; I guess The Boss likes to keep his enemies close."

"The Boss should be back tomorrow. Maybe he's got plans for them then."

Domino descended the staircase and approached the two guards, taking short, aggravated footsteps. _Giovanni's detaining Jessie and James? And 'back tomorrow'… where did he go to without telling me?_

"Where is my husband?" she demanded upon reaching them, placing her hands on her bony hips.

"Calm down, sweetheart. He left for Violet City, since he's having a meeting with the gym leader there tomorrow. He didn't tell you?" Terry inquired.

_No,_ she thought angrily, _he never tells me anything. _But not wanting to reveal this to the guard, she replied, "I guess I just forgot about that. And _don_'_t_ call me 'sweetheart'."

Marcus looked at his partner, and then back at Domino guardedly. "Well… ehem… I think it's time we got going. Giovanni can deal with the… _detainees_ tomorrow."

"I already heard you say you've got Jessie and James," Domino remarked unpleasantly. "I'm not deaf." Out of curiosity, she asked, "Where are James and Meowth? Are they in this house?"

Once again, the guards exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"Err… I don't know if we should tell you that," Marcus said lamely.

"It's not a matter you should waste your valuable time getting involved in," added Terry quickly.

"Well, I disagree," Domino retorted. "If I'm supposed to be here with prisoners in my house for the next day, I think I ought to know about it."

"You're just going to have to wait until Giovanni comes back," Marcus said stubbornly.

Domino snapped. Furiously, she reached for Marcus's shirt, yanking him towards her with a surprising amount of force.

"I don't care what your 'instructions' were. I want to know, right now, if there are people being held captive in my house, or I will personally ensure that both of you are fired. I may be Giovanni's wife, but I am also the Chief Information Officer of Rocket, Inc., and I have more than enough power to dismiss you."

Actually, that wasn't exactly the case— she'd have hell to pay if she fired Giovanni's guards without permission, and he'd likely just bring them back if she did, but she hoped that Marcus and Terry wouldn't realize it was an empty threat.

To her disgust, Marcus glanced at Terry and the two snickered mockingly.

"Lady, threats are lost on us," Terry said condescendingly. Domino released Marcus's shirt begrudgingly, glaring daggers at the guards.

"Just wait until tomorrow," Marcus instructed her. "It's not gonna be that long. You won't even know they're here."

Terry punched Marcus in the arm and gave him an incredulous look.

Domino smiled. _Looks like I have my answer, _she thought.

"Well, we'll be on our way," Terry said bitterly, still eyeing his partner. "Our work here is done."

"See you two tomorrow," Domino replied in a syrupy sweet tone.

After the guards were gone, Domino pondered what to do. She really had no interest in Jessie, James, or Meowth; in fact, she'd never liked them, and she wouldn't really care that they were locked up, except for the fact that her husband had obviously had some reason for inviting them to the mansion and detaining them. _What could have happened at dinner after I left?_ she wondered. Or, perhaps, Giovanni had been planning to hold them captive since he'd first talked to James on the phone.

_If they're in the house, _Domino thought, _they have to be locked up in the cellar. It's the only wing that I would never visit, and the only place where no one would hear them making a lot of noise._

Then, to spite her husband more than anything else, she decided to pay the captives a visit.

She needed to make her way across the mansion and down two flights of stairs to reach the cellar. The mansion's many rooms were dark and empty, and Domino felt very small and alone. A husband, wife, and son did not need to live in a home this large, but she knew Giovanni would never understand that. Everything he did, and everything he was, was to excess; he would never be satisfied with just enough.

Just as she was beginning to feel like the only human left on the planet, she approached the wooden cellar door and heard voices emanating from inside.

They were both male. One of them was pitched higher and wavered with uncertainty, and the other was bolder and blunter, with an accent. _That's them alright, _Domino decided.

There was a key ring hanging on a nail next to the cellar door, and Domino retrieved it. Three keys hung on the chain, and Domino used the largest of them to unlock the door. The keys' ring was big enough for her to fit her hand through, and when she did, it slid all the way up her thin forearm to rest just below her elbow. Then, taking a deep breath, she turned the knob of the cellar door and entered.

James and Meowth, who appeared to be arguing inside the cage in which they were imprisoned (which, Domino knew, had been used in the past to encage rare pokemon that Team Rocket had captured), abruptly stopped talking and turned to look at Domino.

"Uh-oh," Meowth remarked quietly to James, "it's Lady Boss!"

Domino scowled at the pokemon. _Lady Boss?_ Then, she realized that the two of them probably figured she was there to interrogate them, or perhaps just to harass them.

"That's 'The Black Tulip' to you," she replied haughtily, folding her arms. The three keys jingled on their ring as she did so, and Meowth and James gazed at them longingly.

"Alright then, _'Black Tulip'_," Meowth said. "What, are you a comic book villain or something?"

"It's an alias, you idiot!" Domino snapped, kicking the bars of the cage, then realizing how stupid she must have looked doing it in slippers. She thought she detected amused expressions on the captives' faces. "You two wouldn't understand, since you always foolishly chose to use your real names."

"If we're so foolish, then why do you need to keep us in here?" asked James. "We just came here to have dinner and make conversation…"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't lie to me. You think I can't see through you? I don't know what you were doing here tonight, but it wasn't wise," Domino interrupted sharply. Softening just slightly, she inquired, "What _were_ you doing here tonight, anyway?" _And why did my husband agree to meet with you in the first place?_

James and Meowth looked at each other uneasily.

"_Tell _me," Domino demanded. Then, realizing that asking so harshly would likely prove to be fruitless, she added reluctantly, "Look, I'm not going to… tell my husband. I'm not even a part of this. Honestly, I don't like you, I didn't want you to come here in the first place, and I definitely don't want you in my house longer than you have to be."

James listened to her, appearing conflicted. He turned to Meowth and asked him quietly, as if he truly didn't think Domino could hear him, "What do you think?"

"Well, we're already in a cage, and we have no idea where Jessie is. I don't think it can get much worse than this," Meowth speculated aloud. "I say we tell her."

James took a deep breath. An old table with a few chairs stood across from the metal cage that Meowth and James were in, and Domino pulled out one of the chairs, taking a seat and crossing her legs.

"A few days ago, Jessie and I were traveling to Ecruteak City, and we met up with a big, scary-looking, talking pokemon," James explained. "Later, a legendary pokemon researcher told us it was called Raikou, and that it was an electric-type legendary pokemon."

"You guys have been like lightning rods for legendaries lately," Meowth commented.

"Meowth, this is my story— don't steal my thunder," James interjected. "Anyway," he continued, "Raikou said that there was some kind of imbalance in the universe, which is what's causing the storms in Johto, and the source of the imbalance is a human."

Domino swallowed. _A big, scary-looking, talking pokemon… _she remembered the pokemon she'd seen in the conservatory the night before. _That pokemon mentioned Raikou, so it must have been a different type of legendary pokemon,_ she pokemon's words echoed ominously in her head.

**You.**

**It is you.**

"I guess, if the imbalance isn't fixed, the world is going to end."

Normally, Domino would be skeptical of anything she heard from James, but she didn't think that James's mention of Raikou, in combination with what the mysterious legendary pokemon from the conservatory had told her, could be just a coincidence.

Realizing she hadn't replied to James, she said uneasily, "Oh."

"_Oh_?" Meowth questioned, apparently in shock that she'd responded in so few words.

Hastily, Domino added, "Well, what does that have to do with you coming here?"

"I thought that The Boss, who'd always been after rare pokemon, might have had something to do with the imbalance, maybe by capturing a legendary pokemon himself," James explained.

Domino was surprised. _That's probably the best reasoning James has ever done in his life, _she thought.

"We asked him questions about Lugia, since our… _friend_ thought that pokemon might have something to do with it, too," Meowth added.

Domino frowned and leaned forward in her chair. "Who is this 'friend'?" she inquired.

"Umm—" James and Meowth glanced at each other again, "—nobody you know," James answered quickly.

Domino debated insisting he tell her who this person was, but ultimately she decided it didn't matter much, at least not to her. Rocket Inc. was too powerful to be broken down, even if Jessie and James were collaborating with some of their enemies.

"You told us you'd tell us where Jessie is," James insisted. Domino had forgotten.

"The guards said that someone took Jessie to the Goldenrod Underground," she explained. "I don't know any more specifics than that."

James and Meowth looked a little disappointed, but they didn't say anything.

Sitting back again, Domino folded her arms, and her key ring jingled.

Gazing at the keys, Meowth inquired, "So… if you're 'not a part of this', then why'd you come down here?"

Domino met his eyes. "I told you, I don't like you, and I don't want you in my house," she replied matter-of-factly. "So, if you play your cards right, I might just let you leave."

"What?!" James inquired in disbelief. "Really?"

"When?" Meowth inquired eagerly.

"Be _patient,_" Domino replied irritably. "First, tell me more about the legendary pokemon."

_They came here to gather information from Giovanni,_ she thought slyly, _but I'm going to gather information from _them.

James and Meowth sighed disappointedly.

"Go on, then," Domino encouraged, gesturing with her hands and making the keys jingle again, almost taunting the two captives. Though she didn't want to admit it to herself, Domino was enjoying having power over _someone_, even if "someone" was only James and Meowth.

"Well… we met another legendary pokemon, as well as Raikou," James continued. "When we got to Ecruteak City, we met someone who owned a Rainbow Wing, and we went with him up to the top of Tin Tower to meet Ho-Oh."

"Ho-Oh?" Domino inquired, raising an eyebrow. _Now that's a little hard to believe, _she thought. _Most people are lucky to see even one legendary pokemon in their lifetime, and he's claiming to have met two within a week!_

On the other hand, it made no sense for James to lie to her at this point. He'd already told her everything about Raikou, which, given her experience in the conservatory the night before, seemed plausible to Domino. Also, she'd just (perhaps foolishly) enticed them with the notion of freedom, so, if anything, she would have expected even more honesty from them after that.

"Ho-Oh," James confirmed. "It didn't tell us very much more about the imbalance, other than that we could find it 'where only the strong can survive', but it did say it was upset that someone had put out its flame. Actually, come to think of it—" he widened his eyes in alarm— "we were supposed to find that person, weren't we Meowth? Oh, no… there isn't enough time now! We only have… what, two days?"

"Two days until what?" Domino asked in confusion.

"Until the storm comes," Meowth answered, also looking concerned. "And we still haven't made any progress on finding the source of the imbalance, either. It's not lookin' good for us, my friend." He looked at Domino and narrowed his feline eyes. "Wait a second… you're not the one who put out Ho-Oh's flame, are ya?"

"Huh?" Domino was totally baffled; she'd hardly even heard of Ho-Oh, except in legends, and she certainly hadn't been near any notable flames lately. _This all just seems totally crazy, _she thought.

"Enough of this," Domino declared. "I have no idea what you're talking about, and I'm tired of talk, anyway. Have you told me all you know?"

"About the legendary pokemon, yes," James replied. "But we do, however, have valuable knowledge in other areas we could share…"

Domino sighed in frustration. _That wasn't much help, _she thought. _All I know is that Raikou and the pokemon I met last night are somehow related, and that _the_ end of the world might be on its way. Great. _Remembering the words of the pokemon she'd spoken to again, she wondered, _Could it have meant that _I _am the source of the imbalance? How could that even be possible?_

"That's alright," she answered shortly. "I'm definitely not interested."

She stood up and advanced toward the cage.

"If I let you out," she warned, "don't try to pull anything. I'll show you the way around the security cameras. Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?" James inquired eagerly.

"Promise you won't ever come back," she said, slowly inserting the key into the lock and opening the cage's door.


	16. 0F

Author's note:

There are two more finished chapters after this - 10 and 11 - which will be posted next Friday and the following. Then, I will be taking my hiatus. School is heating up, and I need to focus. However, this break from writing has been good for me - I'm refueled with new ideas, and I'm truly excited to get back to "Resistance" when I have time.

Thanks for reading (and reviewing!),

~TheFrogFromHell

**0F**

"Umm…" James began, and Domino turned to him.

"What?" she huffed impatiently.

"Well… my pokemon. I don't know where the guards took them."

As much as he desired to leave, James wasn't willing to go without Weezing and Victreebel.

Domino sighed exasperatedly, slipping the key ring she'd used to unlock the cage back onto her wrist. James had noticed that there were three keys, each of a different size, hanging on it.

"There's a safe where they might be," Domino told him, "but it's all the way across the mansion. It'll be a lot harder to avoid being seen that way."

Domino gazed at James with an apathetic expression, the corners of her mouth set in a slight frown. As she'd aged, she'd acquired two tiny creases on either side of her nose, making her appear perpetually displeased with whomever she looked at.

"I'm not leaving without my pokemon," James stated firmly.

Domino made a frustrated sound.

"Fine," she conceded distastefully. "I'll go to the safe myself while you two sneak across the mansion to the back patio. You _must _go out the back way, and if you see any pokemon topiaries, keep away."

"Why?" James inquired.

Domino looked at him as if he had the IQ of a mentally challenged slowpoke.

"Because," she answered edgily, "there are cameras in the topiaries. There's one in the knocker on the front door, too."

"Oh." Domino had officially succeeded in making James feel like an idiot. _This sounds like it's going to be a lot more complicated than just getting out of that cage, _James thought fretfully, remembering how vast Giovanni's lawn had been. _How will we make it all the way across it and back to the gate while avoiding the cameras? Those topiaries we saw earlier were _everywhere…

"I knew those shrubs gave me the creeps," Meowth commented, shuddering. "They made me feel like a cat on a hot tin roof."

Domino said, "If you can make it out to the patio, I will meet you there and help you avoid the cameras. But you owe me one, and you'd better make sure to keep your promise!"

The confidence in Domino's tone told James that Domino had prior experience in evading Giovanni's security cameras, which made him wonder a little about her relationship with her husband, but he figured this wasn't any time to think too hard about it.

Domino jingled the keys. "Ready?" she inquired hastily.

"Err… yes," James replied, his voice faltering, which Domino ignored. She swiftly turned on her heels, yanked the cellar door open, and held it for James and Meowth impatiently.

They exchanged nervous looks before exiting the room. Domino took the lead, and they followed her out of the cellar and up the staircase leading to the rest of the mansion. Once at the top, Domino whispered to the duo, "You're going to go to the right. Cut across the guest bedroom and through the game room, and then there will be a door on the left that leads to a hallway. You have to get low in the hallway— bend over or crawl— because there are windows that the cameras can see."

James and Meowth nodded, listening intently to try to keep up with Domino's fast instructions.

"Down the hallway on the left is the exit that leads to the patio. Don't open the door too wide, or the cameras will pick it up. Open it just enough to squeeze through, and then stay close to the wall as you curve around the corner of the mansion. There's a blind spot there— that's where I'll meet you. Understand?"

They nodded again. _To the right, through the guestroom and the game room… down the hall…_ James repeated the instructions in his mind, trying to fully encode them so that he wouldn't forget.

"Okay, I'll meet you out there in ten minutes," Domino said. "Don't make me wait!"

Without further preamble, she turned around and began walking in quick, short steps away from them and through a large, heavy door straight ahead.

James and Meowth looked to their right. There was a smaller door there, which James assumed lead to the guestroom.

"Let's go," James said to Meowth, trying to keep his nerves from reaching his voice.

"You lead the way," Meowth confirmed.

The first part of their journey seemed easy enough; the small door did indeed lead to the guestroom, which, unsurprisingly, was huge and appeared fit for a king.

The game room proved to be just as simple to find, as there had been only one door in the guestroom that could have led to it. In the game room, there was a pool table, a full bar, and an enormous television. James and Meowth examined their surroundings enviously.

"Why does somebody like The Boss get all this stuff?" Meowth complained as they passed through. "I mean, he's no better than us!"

"Actually, I think it's safe to say he's worse," James replied uneasily. "That's probably why."

The duo hit a snag as they looked for the door leading to the hall. There were three doors altogether, two of them facing James and Meowth and one of them on the side wall to the right.

"Uh… Meowth?" James began uneasily. "Which one…" he trailed off.

_Did she say to the left or to the right? _James tried to remember anxiously.

"Err… the right? She told us to go right."

"That's right, I think I remember that," James recalled. _But did she mean before or after the guestroom when she said that?_ "But… are you sure we're not just out in left field, Meowth?"

"Let's try this door right here," Meowth suggested, walking over to the side door.

"Umm… okay," James reluctantly agreed. _If we go out the wrong one, we could end up making wrong turns right, left, and center!_

Meowth turned the knob to reveal a room that definitely _wasn't _the hallway. It almost looked like another sitting room, except that, in its center, there was a round, throne-like bed covered in fluffy, silky pillows.

James noticed that the hair on Meowth's back was standing at attention, and his sharp claws jutted out from his paws.

"Sorry," Meowth said. "I can't help it; it's an instinct. It's weird, though, 'cause it usually only happens when I'm around another…"

Suddenly, James heard a low growl to his right, and he and Meowth turned to see a persian, leering at them threateningly and poised to pounce. It was well- groomed, but James could tell it was elderly; its coat looked uneven and worn and the red gem on its forehead had lost its luster.

"It's The Boss's top cat!" Meowth whispered to James. The cat's eyes flashed menacingly, and James and Meowth backed away slowly. When they were close enough to the door, they quickly ran back out of it and slammed it behind them. Through the door, they could hear the pokemon meowing stridently, expressing obvious displeasure.

"That was close," Meowth commented anxiously. James nodded in agreement.

"Let's try the door to the left," he suggested.

Remembering that Domino had instructed them to crouch down, the two slowly opened the leftmost door of the game room and crawled on their hands and knees out into the hall, which had a polished wooden floor.

_We must be on the right track now, _James thought as they crawled toward the exit, which was down the hall to the left. _I mean… the _correct _track._

Just as Domino had instructed them to do, James and Meowth stayed low until they reached the door at the end of the hall, then opened it just as much as they needed to in order to slip out. James noticed how cold it was, and that it was now pouring outside. Thankfully, the patio was underneath an overhang, so the two were protected from the harsh weather for the moment. Keeping their bodies pressed to the wall, they rose up, inching around the side of the building.

"I think we made pretty good time," James whispered to Meowth. "Looks like Domino won't have to wait for us!"

The catlike pokemon nodded in agreement.

Just as they were turning the corner, James heard hissing behind him and whirled around to discover that the same persian that had been in the room on the right had followed them. _How did it get out?_ James wondered fearfully.

"James, watch out!" Meowth cried as the persian lunged at them. Instinctively, they ducked out of the way, parting from the mansion's wall as they did so.

The persian landed gracefully and turned to face them, still hissing and baring its teeth.

"Hey, buddy," Meowth began nervously, apparently attempting to calm the pokemon down. "Don't be attacking us; we felines need to stick together!"

The persian, however, was not quelled by Meowth's comment. It advanced toward them again, taking slow, light steps as it would if it was hunting a rattata.

James and Meowth slowly backed up one step at a time, holding their arms up to shield their faces from the rain, until they ran into something that halted their progress, something scratchy that rustled when they'd touched it. James looked over his shoulder and gasped.

It was a kangaskhan topiary.

_Oh no, _James thought in fear, _now we can't escape _and_ we're on camera!_

"Hey!" he heard someone yell, sounding alarmed. "What the hell are you doing?!"

James looked up to see Domino standing by the wall of the mansion. Evidently, she'd come from the opposite direction. In her hand, she held James's belt with his two pokeballs on it.

"Ruby, get over here!" she ordered.

The persian, still hissing, backed away slightly, but it didn't appear to be entirely ready to leave James and Meowth alone.

_At least Domino's here now, _James thought, though the notion did little to comfort him. _But if the guards show up…_

James jumped in shock when he heard the noise of an engine behind him. He looked over to see a small, black security vehicle pulling up to the kangaskhan topiary.

"Run!" Domino told them in a panicked half-shout, half-whisper, as James heard car doors slamming and footsteps on the grass. James and Meowth took Domino's suggestion, sprinting away from the topiary.

"How'd you two get out?" a voice demanded furiously, and then chills ran down James's spine as he heard an ominous 'click'.

A gun.

Before James knew what was happening, Meowth yelled, "PRESTO!"

Suddenly, the group was surrounded by thick, dark smoke. James's eyes watered and he coughed violently, trying to rid his lungs of the offending substance.

"Here," James heard Domino say quietly between coughs. He felt something touch his arm, and he reached for it, grasping it in his hand: his belt with the pokeballs.

"Thank y—" he started to say, when he was interrupted by gunshots.

Domino screamed, and James felt around for her, but to no avail.

"Keep running!" Meowth yelled, and reluctantly James turned around and the two ran as fast as they could away from the cloud of smoke. When they were far enough away from it to see their surroundings more clearly, they noticed that there were plenty more pokemon topiaries around them, but they didn't bother avoiding them anymore. _It's too late now, _James figured. Although he didn't care for Domino, he wondered anxiously if she was okay.

"How did you do that, Meowth?" James questioned as they ran.

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Meowth replied proudly. However, James wondered if it had truly been magic, or if Meowth had somehow picked up a Smoke Ball at some point that evening.

The duo approached a tall, thick wall made out of the same kind of shrub that the pokemon topiaries were.

"That's too high to climb, even for a meowth!" Meowth exclaimed fretfully.

Thinking on his feet, James said quickly, "I have an idea."

He released Victreebel, dodging the pokemon as it attempted to sink its teeth into his head.

"Not now, Victreebel," he told it sternly. "This is serious business! I need you to use Vine Whip to help us get over this wall.

Likely astonished by James's assertiveness, the pokemon complied, shooting two long, sturdy vines upward and attaching their ends to the top of the wall.

Meowth climbed onto James's back, and James reached up to grasp the two vines, swinging his body and walking his hands up the vines to ascend to the top of the wall. This was tricky, since the rain made the vines slick and difficult to grip, but once he was close enough to the wall, he was able to swing a leg up onto it, hoisting him and Meowth up to sit on the top.

The duo jumped again as they heard gunshots and the guards' voices. James quickly recalled Victreebel and prepared to descend the other side of the wall.

"Ready?" he asked Meowth.

"_Go, James_!" Meowth cried as the dark forms of the guards approached. James leapt backward, bracing himself.

The wall was probably twenty feet high, and James tried to slow their downward progress a little by grasping for leaves and branches as they slid down it. This, however, proved to be a mistake, because it only resulted in lacerations on his hands and a few on his face. The leaves seemed to be extra sharp, almost as if they were made out of a special rigid material.

They hit the ground hard, hurting James's knees and ankles and jarring Meowth, who struggled to hold onto James. _I'm too old for this, _James decided, wincing.

However, despite his painful limbs, he knew the guards would be close behind, so he forced himself to run away as fast as he could.

"They're hot on our tails!" Meowth cried. "Well, mine anyway."

"We've got to find somewhere to hide," James speculated aloud. They were approaching Goldenrod's main road, so he knew there would be buildings they could go inside. _But it's late, _he remembered fretfully._ Everything will be closed by now!_

"James, the Game Corner! That place is open all night!" Meowth said, pointing to a tall, flashy building across from the Goldenrod Department Store.

James made a beeline for the building, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to look for the guards. He didn't see them anywhere, but that didn't necessarily mean they weren't close by. _If I know The Boss, he'll have them keep looking until they find us, _James thought uneasily.

The two finally reached the door of the casino, which was lined with vivid, flashing lights. They quickly darted inside, hoping there would be a large enough crowd there to conceal them if the guards were to come looking.

Fortunately, the Game Corner didn't disappoint— the place was crawling with people, most of them either sitting at the slot machines, staring at their screens vapidly, or playing card games at a few tables dispersed throughout the huge room. The casino's décor was, as one would expect, bright and flashy, far past the point of tackiness. The floors had a red, checkered pattern that made James a little dizzy, and the tables and counter were all colored electric blue. James stood just inside the entrance for a few moments, soaking wet and mesmerized by the lights and electronic noises the machines made, until Meowth said sharply, "Well, we can't just stand here! We've got to blend in. Let's find a table."

"But Meowth," James argued anxiously, following the pokemon as he wove through the crowd, "we don't have any money…" He checked his pockets just to make sure. He found his $2.63 and the coupon for the haircut in the Goldenrod Underground shop still there, but $2.63 didn't go far in a casino. Most of the tables cost at least ten dollars to play.

The two heard amplified noises coming from across the room and turned towards the source. There was a small stage at the back of the casino where a microphone and speakers were being set up. On the platform, two casino employees were conversing about something heatedly, both appearing displeased.

"I can get us some money," Meowth said, grinning and flashing his white, pointed teeth.

"How?" James questioned dubiously. "And we shouldn't stay here too long— we have to rescue Jessie!" Seeing the coupon had reminded him that Domino had told them where the guards had taken the third member of the trio.

"If we leave now, The Boss's guards will catch us right away," Meowth pointed out. "We need to lay low for a while… y'know, blend in."

Meowth began walking across the casino toward the stage. James's eyes darted around the room nervously. _I don't see the guards yet, but they're bound to figure out where we went soon…_

As they approached the stage, James could hear what the two employees were arguing about.

"I thought those guys from Crush Tooth were supposed to perform tonight. Their names are on the schedule, but they're over an hour late!" exclaimed one of them, who was a short, bearded man with thick-rimmed glasses.

The other one, a black-haired, mildly gothic-looking woman, shook her head and countered, "No, Steve, I told you last week that Crush Tooth got a sub. Flareon Army was supposed to be here tonight instead, but they haven't shown up either. There must be some misunderstanding."

"Well, that's just as well; Flareon Army's sound just doesn't do it for me anyway," Steve replied.

Irritated, the woman responded, "Yeah, that's great, except now we have no act for tonight, and the owners are going to fire our asses."

"Hey… Steve, Charity, what's scratchin'?" Meowth called up to the two employees, who, startled, looked down and gasped.

"Mr. Cat!" the woman exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here tonight?" She frowned when she noticed that Meowth and James were soaked from head to toe. "And what _happened_ to you?"

_Meowth lives in Goldenrod City, _James recalled. _He's probably performed here as the Magic Cat a lot._

"Well, my associate and I were just, y'know, out on the town, and we happened to stop by," Meowth replied. "It's kinda nasty outside. Not the best weather for someone who hates water."

The two employees nodded.

"We'll get you something to dry off with," Steve told them kindly.

"Thanks," Meowth and James chorused.

Charity and Steve exchanged glances.

"Do you think…?" Charity asked.

"Worth a shot," Steve replied.

They turned back to Meowth and James. Sweetly, Charity inquired, "So… Mr. Cat. Do you think you could do us a big favor?"

…

Lance and Clair came in for a landing in Goldenrod City at about eleven o'clock at night. During their journey, it had begun to rain, and the two dragon trainers held their capes over their heads in order to stay dry.

This time, their arrival did attract quite a bit of attention; the people outside of bars and restaurants gaped as the two dragonite touched down and their cape-wearing riders hopped off. Lance was used to it, however, so he paid them no mind.

"Those three have to be finished with the meeting by now," Lance remarked, looking at the clock above the Goldenrod Department Store's entrance, which was just close enough for him to make out the time. "They told us this morning before we left that they were going to go over to Meowth's place after the meeting. We should head over there— Meowth gave me directions just in case."

Clair yawned, and Lance noticed that she appeared exhausted. _I probably look exactly the same way,_ he thought. It seemed as if the day had been comprised of one adventure after another, but there was no time to waste with the storm predicted to arrive so soon.

"Hopefully, we'll talk about the meeting, and then Meowth won't mind if we crash there for the night," Clair said, and Lance nodded in agreement. Although Jessie, James, and Meowth annoyed Lance, any bed or couch he could sleep on sounded like a sweet offer at the moment.

The cousins healed their pokemon at the pokemon center first so that their pokemon, at least, would be fresh, and then they headed toward Meowth's apartment, which was across the street from the Radio Tower. The tower was huge and industrial-looking, a big chunk of iron plunked down in the middle of a golden metropolis.

"Hey, doesn't that guy who gave you the Silver Wing work at the Radio Tower?" Lance inquired.

"That's what his card said, but I tried to call the number he gave me," Clair replied bitterly, "and this woman answered instead— Ariana— and she said _she _was the new director of the Radio Tower. She had a major attitude problem, if you ask me."

Lance furrowed his brow in confusion. "Weird," he commented. _Sounds like they've made some staff changes recently, and not for the better, _he thought._  
_

The two finally reached the apartment, which, like most of Goldenrod City, was yellow and impressively sized, and entered its foyer. All of the residents' rooms were located upstairs, and Lance didn't have a key for the elevator. There was an intercom button on the wall for each room, and Lance pressed the one for Meowth's room, number 308.

"Uh… Hello, Meowth. It's Lance and Clair," he stated.

He released the button and awaited a response, but none came. He looked at his cousin, who shrugged, and frowned.

Trying again, he pressed the button and said a little more loudly, "Meowth? James? Jessie? It's the dragon trainers from this morning."

Still no answer.

"Could they still be at the CEO's house?" Clair asked Lance.

"Doubt it," he answered. "That guy's probably too busy with his job to stay up all night with those three bozos."

Claire's eyes drooped, and she leaned against the wall wearily. "Where should we go now?" she inquired just as she was overtaken by another yawn.

"Well, I guess we're gonna have to find a hotel, unless you want to fly back to Blackthorn tonight," Lance replied.

"Hotel sounds good," Clair said sleepily.

The two left the apartment and began walking back towards downtown Goldenrod. _There are sure to be hotels near the Game Corner, _Lance thought.

As they passed by the casino, Lance noticed a strange scene unfolding.

"We're at capacity," a concierge was explaining to two men standing at the Casino's entrance. "Sorry, but you'll just have to come back another time."

"You don't understand," one of the men argued irritably. "There are two men in there we're after... well, one man and one pokemon, anyway… who are on the run. They're dangerous!"

The doorman looked skeptical. "Who are these shady characters? What crime have they committed?"

"Well, one— the human one— has blue hair," the younger man began. "Not blue hair as in old, but literally blue."

Clair was continuing to walk on, but Lance stopped her, eavesdropping on the conversation interestedly. Now that they were closer to the casino, Lance could see that the men in black were dressed in what looked like uniforms— security guard uniforms.

"And the pokemon talks," the other man added. "It's a talking meowth!"

The concierge burst out laughing.

"What, is this part of tonight's show or something? You just described The Magic Cat and his assistant."

The men were apparently dumfounded.

"What? No, that can't be! They shouldn't be performing at a casino; they should be locked up right now!" the first man exclaimed to his partner. Lance heard panic in the man's voice, which he thought was strange.

_The Magic Cat…_ Lance thought to himself. _That _has _to be Meowth. In fact, I think I remember him calling himself that when we met inside Mt. Mortar! But what are they doing here?_

"Are you cops?" the doorman asked the two men, who glanced at each other uneasily.

"Well… no. Not exactly," the first man replied hesitantly. Lance noticed that he had an almost disproportionately large, bulbous nose, and that he tended to flare his nostrils a lot. Lance figured it was a nervous tick.

"We're security guards," the second man said. Narrowing his eyes, he added, "Rocket Inc. security guards."

Lance looked at Clair, who widened her eyes.

"I'm thinking something went seriously wrong at their dinner meeting," she said quietly.

"I think you might be right," Lance replied.

"Ah," said the concierge. "I've heard about your corporation; you're earning yourselves a reputation around town. However, just because you're a part of Rocket Inc. doesn't mean I'm gonna let you through these doors without a good reason."

The older guard opened his mouth to protest, but the doorman continued, "And harassing our two performers does not constitute 'a good reason'. Please be on your way."

"Come on, Marcus," the older guard huffed, leading his associate away. Lance heard him add on under his breath, "We'll just come back when they're done 'performing'."

Lance hurried up to the concierge with Clair following close behind.

"Hello," Lance said politely.

"Hello," the doorman replied, still peering distractedly in the direction that the guards had gone.

"So it looks like the Magic Cat's attracted quite the crowd," Lance remarked casually. "Any chances of two of his good friends getting in?"

The doorman looked at Lance straight-on, examining him from head to toe: spiky red hair, navy blue and gold suit, flowing cape, and tall black boots. He scrutinized Clair's getup in the same way, and she huffed, "You know, it's not polite to stare. We just want to see our friend, not model onstage."

Lance glanced at his cousin disapprovingly, and she shrugged.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the concierge told them sincerely. "It's just… the way you are dressed… we had a band, Flareon Army, who didn't show up to perform tonight, and I thought you two might be them."

Lance took a little offense at that, and it appeared that Clair did as well.

"We're dragon masters, not musicians!" Clair objected, glowering at the doorman.

"I think our outfits are perfectly suitable for our chosen profession," Lance commented rationally.

"Yes, yes, absolutely," the concierge assured them. Lowering his voice, he leaned in closer to them and said, "Listen, you two can go on in. I just told those two other guys we were at capacity because I didn't like them, and I didn't want them bothering the Magic Cat."

"Great," Lance said. "Thanks. Come on, Clair, let's go find them."

The doorman moved aside so that Lance could pass through. He pulled his cousin, who still eyed the guard a little begrudgingly, along with him, and soon the two found themselves inside the crowded Game Corner, thankful to be out of the rain.

Although there were a few people playing at tables and slot machines, it was obvious that most of the commotion was in the back of the place. Lance heard cheers, applause, and awestruck "ooooohs" coming from across the room, so he headed over to see what was going on.

Fortunately, Lance and Clair were tall, so they were able to see over the heads of most of the crowd members. To Lance's astonishment, Meowth and James stood on top of a small platform, both dressed in magician's garb (James was wearing an entire suit, and Meowth just a bowtie). In his paw, Meowth held a deck of cards, which the crowd was staring at in fascination. A black top hat had been placed at the front of the stage for tips, and Lance was impressed to see that it was overflowing with bills.

A thought struck Lance. _Where's Jessie, I wonder? Don't those three usually stick together?_

"For my next trick, I'm going to need a volunteer," Meowth said as he scanned the crowd. "How about—" Suddenly, he laid eyes on the two dragon users, "—_Lance_?"

"Hey, that's not fair!" someone in the crowd protested. "If you already know him, how do we know you didn't pre-plan this?"

"Sorry, folks," Meowth announced quickly, "but we're about out of time. It's time the Astonishing Magic Cat and Professor James Trix made their exit. Goodnight everyone, and happy gaming!"

People began to protest loudly, but then they gasped as a huge "CRACK" sounded and a puff of smoke was emitted onstage. After it had cleared a little, Lance could see that Meowth and James (and, amazingly, the tip collection hat) had disappeared. Members of the crowd whispered to each other, half confused and half impressed.

Lance jumped when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hi, guys!"

He whirled around to find Meowth and James standing behind him.

"How did you…" Clair began, apparently astonished.

Lance smirked. _That was no magic trick, _he thought, _though it did look pretty cool._

"Smoke ball, am I right?" he inquired lightly.

Meowth's face fell, which confirmed that Lance _had _been right, but the cat pokemon only muttered softly, "A magician never reveals his secrets."

"What are you _doing _here?" Clair inquired in confusion. "And where's Jessie?"

"Hey, Mr. Magic Cat," a woman from the crowd called out, approaching the group, "can I have your autograph?"

A few other people had heard her and, realizing where Meowth was standing, they began to advance toward him as well.

"We'd better find somewhere a little more private," Meowth said quietly, taking the piece of paper and pen that the woman was offering him and scribbling a messy signature (Lance assumed it was a challenge to write without thumbs) on it.

James looked around nervously. "As long as 'private' also means 'safe from the guards'."

"Guards?" Lance questioned. _Oh, yeah… he must be talking about those guys we saw outside the door earlier._

The crowd members objected as the group made their way around the side of the stage and behind some curtains to a small backstage area. It was so cramped that Lance, Clair, James, and Meowth had to stand uncomfortably close together in order to fit.

"Okay, so what happened?" Clair inquired, folding her arms and accidentally jabbing James with her elbow.

"Ouch," he remarked, eyeing her.

"Sorry."

Casually, James removed his magician's hat and gloves, and Lance noticed that his hands were covered in cuts and scratches, some of them somewhat deep.

"What _happened_?" Lance questioned, gesturing to James's battered hands.

"Bushes… It's a long story. Do you want to tell it, Meowth?"

The Magic Cat nodded.

"Well," Meowth began, "we were having dinner with The Boss and his wife, Domino, and everything was going great—" James gave him an incredulous look, "—well, actually it was going pretty badly, but we were just making a little small talk, y'know." Meowth's expression darkened. "Then, I guess we got a little too pushy with the questions about legendary pokemon, and he turned on us."

"Turned on you?" Lance asked concernedly. _We never should have had them go over there by themselves, _he thought regretfully. _That guy's just too powerful and dangerous._

"His security guards showed up, with guns, and they locked us in the cellar."

Lance and Clair gaped.

"How did you get out?" Clair asked them in disbelief.

"Domino, Giovanni's wife let us out," James replied, looking troubled. "But things got messy as we were leaving; we were caught on the security cameras, and shots were fired. We think Domino might have gotten hit right after she helped us."

_Giovanni's wife? I had no idea the CEO of Rocket Inc. was even married, _Lance thought.

"But we can't go back now," Meowth said a little remorsefully. "We have to find Jessie, and the guards would just capture us again if we tried to go back to save Lady Boss."

"Do you know where Jessie is?" Clair asked them.

"Domino told us that the guards took her to the underground," James responded.

"You mean, that shady place with all those shifty merchants?" Clair questioned confusedly. "Why would they take her there?"

"Rocket Inc. probably controls it," James replied. "The Boss told us that they run Goldenrod City now."

Lance was shocked. "You mean, Whitney forfeited her gym?"

"No," Clair answered bitterly. "Judging by that email she sent to the gym leaders the other day, I think it's safe to say she's working _with _them." She looked away and sighed. "It probably wasn't that hard to convince her; I mean, all they would have needed to do was offer her some cute, rare, normal-type pokemon, and then she'd be at their fingertips."

Lance wasn't quite sure if Clair's theory was correct, but he did know that she and Whitney had never seen eye to eye.

Clair gasped, and her eyes lit up as if she'd had an epiphany. "I bet they control the Radio Tower, too!" she exclaimed. "The woman I spoke to on the phone was probably a Rocket."

"In any case, we should get to Jessie as soon as possible," Lance said. _Jessie might be a bit odd and loudmouthed, but she doesn't deserve whatever treatment Rocket Inc. is probably giving her right now,_ he thought nervously.

"I have no idea what it's like in the underground now," Meowth told him. "I haven't been down there for a haircut since… well, definitely since before Rocket Inc. took over."

"Let's bring our pokemon and be prepared for the worst," Lance suggested. "Even if Rocket Inc.'s employees are really strong, they won't be any match for all of us."

"Actually…" Clair spoke up, and the others turned to her. She cleared her throat and continued, "Actually, I'd like to go check out the Radio Tower. Lance, you've got a full party, and I'm sure that you and James can handle those idiots. I have some personal business to settle with this 'new director', and I want to find out what happened to Mr. Jacoby."

"You're sure you'll be okay by yourself?" Lance questioned, eyeing Clair concernedly.

Clair narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll be fine," she replied evenly, though Lance picked up a hint of irritation in her tone. He realized that she probably thought he was being condescending, though that hadn't been his intention. "If I can defeat the Elite Four, I'm pretty sure I can deal with a few Radio Tower workers."

"They might have weapons," James pointed out. "I mean, The Boss's guards did."

Clair appeared bothered by that notion, thinking for a moment. "The guards are in closer proximity to the CEO than these people will be. I doubt that the regular Radio Tower workers will have guns, although I could be wrong. I'll be careful."

Lance nodded, though he knew that, given what Rocket Inc. was capable of, they needed to be extra cautious.

"It's you guys I'm worried about," Clair continued. "It could get rough in the underground."

"Don't worry," Meowth assured her. "We've got two good trainers, plus the master of escape right here." He gestured to himself.

"Okay," Clair replied uneasily, meeting Lance's eyes. _I'll be okay, _he thought, attempting to calm his nerves. Honestly, he _was_ a little hesitant about going to the underground; he had no idea what to expect, and that made him nervous. _Well, _he thought, _I guess it's just another adventure. _

But he somehow had the feeling that, if Rocket Inc. was involved, there were sure to be some nasty surprises.


	17. 10

Author's Note:

Thanks again to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. I have a small clarification here: I think that Clair called one of her dragonair the proper name "Dragonair" in a previous chapter. However, since that chapter was written (I'm not sure which chapter it is), I decided that it made sense for Clair to nickname her dragonair, so at the end of this chapter she uses a different name for one of them. I'll go back and fix that inconsistency at some point, but I don't have time to hunt for it at the moment. So, anyway, Clair's dragonair have nicknames.

Anywho... enjoy, and let me know what you thought of the chapter.

~TheFrogFromHell

**10**

Up close, Goldenrod's Radio Tower was imposingly tall. Its base was wide and sturdy, but each floor above the bottom one was narrower than the one below it, and at its top the tower was nothing but a thick, metal spire reaching up to the sky and grasping for the storm clouds above.

Clair shivered; it seemed that it was only getting colder outside, and her cape was now so saturated with water that it did little to keep her dry. _Well, there is one good thing about the rain, _she admitted, _it's keeping me awake._ Somehow, the weather, in combination with her determination to get to the bottom of the Radio Tower mystery, had superseded her exhaustion.

She peered in through the window on the base floor. It was dark, and she couldn't see anyone inside. Being almost midnight, it was unsurprising that the door was locked. A sign on the wall read "RADIO TOWER TOURS, 9 AM TO 5 PM, M—F". However, right below it, Clair noticed that another sign, which read "ALL TOURS CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" had been tacked on.

_Maybe no one's here_, Clair considered. Perhaps her tiredness had been clouding her judgment when she'd assumed she could confront Ariana this late at night.

Then, she noticed something— a light, emanating from a window several stories up.

Clair thought about knocking on the door, but then, realizing that no one that high up would be able to hear it, she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Hey! I'm here to talk to the director. Are you up there? Hello!"

If whoever was up there had heard her, they chose not to respond.

Clair had an idea.

"Kingdra, let's go!" she called out, releasing her dragon. The aquatic dragon appeared next to her, blinking and looking around as if dazed and confused. _It's used to me releasing it in the water, _Clair figured, _but this rain is more than enough water for tonight._ Predictably, the dragon appeared to acclimate, enjoying the raindrops as they cascaded down its bright blue scales.

"Kingdra, can you use your Surf attack on that window to let those people upstairs know we're here?"

"Dra!" the dragon affirmed, aiming its mouth upward and releasing a powerful stream of water. It took a couple of tries for the attack to actually hit the window, since Kingdra was accustomed to aiming attacks at closer targets. However, when it finally did, it didn't take long for a disgruntled man to slide the window open and yell furiously, "What is the meaning of this? Stop distracting us while we're working!"

"I'm here to speak with Ariana!" Clair called up.

The man appeared flustered for a moment, turning his head to look at something in the room, then back to Clair.

"Sorry, you're out of luck. She's not here," he replied sternly.

Clair swore she heard a familiar female voice yell from somewhere inside the building, "Who's there? Is this important?"

The man glared at Clair (at least, it looked like he was glaring at her, but it was hard to tell from so far away), then said a bit less severely, "Hold on."

He shut the window, and Clair wondered if he actually intended to return, or if he was just making an excuse to put an end their encounter.

Fortunately for Clair, after a couple of minutes, the window slid open again, and a woman appeared.

The woman's appearance wasn't familiar, but when she spoke, Clair recognized her voice from their phone conversation.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Ariana demanded rudely.

"Err…" Clair began, but then she considered something. _If I tell her I'm the one who called asking for Mr. Jacoby, she'll just slam that window shut and leave me out here in the cold, _she reasoned. _I've got to come up with something that will interest her…_

"I'm _waiting,_" Ariana complained impatiently.

"Y-you're from Rocket, Inc., right?" Clair inquired, making up a plan on the spot.

Ariana scoffed, resting her elbows on the windowsill and peering down at Clair condescendingly. "Of course," she answered haughtily. "We are the most prestigious, accomplished organization in all of Kanto _and _Johto, and we happen to be in charge of all the major attractions in this town." She frowned and huffed. "Except the game corner and the flower shop," she added quietly.

"Wow! So, being the director and all, you must be pretty accomplished," Clair told her in false admiration, though forcing herself to compliment Ariana pained her. Kingdra gave its trainer a strange look.

"Dra?" it inquired, and Clair shushed it.

Ariana straightened up. "Why, yes. I am one of Rocket Inc.'s top executives." She smirked arrogantly, and Clair gathered her compliment had had exactly the effect she'd intended it to. Then, looking at Clair sternly again, Ariana said, "But you still haven't answered my question. Who are you?"

Now it was Clair's turn to puff herself up. Proudly, she declared, "I am Clair, dragon master and Johto gym leader, and I'm interested in bring Rocket Inc.'s superb professionalism and exciting innovations to Blackthorn City."

…

Jessie awoke with a jolt. She didn't even remember closing her eyes to go to sleep, but she'd been having a dream that had seemed so real… until she had tripped over a geodude at the edge of a cliff and then fallen to what would have been her death.

At first, as the barren walls and floor of the cell she was in came back into focus, Jessie was unconvinced that she'd awakened at all.

Then, she laid eyes on Fin, who was sleeping soundly a few feet away from her. _Those cans of beans must have knocked him out,_ she figured. Her own belly growled as if in protest, though she still didn't regret the decision to give her own helping to the boy.

The guards still hadn't returned since Fin had somehow managed to move the cans without touching them. Jessie wondered if the shorter and meaner guard would be upset that they'd defied his decision to starve them for the night.

Her thoughts returned to her cellmate. _Should I be afraid of him? _she wondered. She'd never seen anything like what had happened earlier with the cans. _Is he really a human psychic? _

She'd heard rumors, of course, at the time when Team Rocket had taken over Saffron City, that Sabrina, the city's gym leader, had psychic powers. However, Jessie had never seen them in use, and the fact that the gym leader claimed to have them had been part of the reason Saffron City's Center for Mental Health had agreed to admit her. Now, Jessie was considering that maybe Sabrina actually _had _been a real psychic. _Maybe she's like Fin, _she mused.

She was startled when she heard footsteps approaching. _The guards, _she figured.

"Fin, wake up," Jessie said, nudging her cellmate with her foot. The boy did not stir.

_I don't want to deal with them alone, _Jessie thought anxiously as the footsteps grew louder.

"Fin!" she said, raising her voice and, again, prodding the boy with her foot. This time, the blond gasped in shock, sitting straight up with wide, frightened eyes. Suddenly, Jessie found herself being propelled backwards as if by an invisible force, and she screamed as she hit the wall behind her, hard.

Her wind had been knocked out, and she gasped for air, groaning in pain when she was able to catch her breath. _I hope I didn't break anything, _she thought, wincing.

"I-I'm so sorry," Fin stammered, making his way over to Jessie. "I… I was startled, it wasn't on purpose…"

Jessie heard someone keying in the combination on the room's door (_five _beeps, she noted), and then footsteps close by.

"Hey, what happened here?" came the voice of one of the guards (unfortunately, it was the shorter, meaner one, as Jessie had predicted). Eyeing the empty cans that lay inside the cage with the two captives, he remarked incredulously, "You two must have longer arms than I thought! Impressive." Then, turning to Jessie, who lay in a heap, he questioned, "And what happened to you, missy?"

"I laid eyes on you," she retaliated sarcastically. The man growled and kicked the cage. _He really needs to come up with something more threatening to do,_ Jessie thought. _That trick stopped being scary after the first time he did it._

Suddenly, Jessie heard noises— a muffled voice and electronic beeps— emanating from the guard's belt.

"Hello, come in, Blair. This is Terry. Over."

It was a walkie talkie, which Blair (Jessie had not known the guard's name until now, but she assumed that's what it was) snatched off his belt. Pressing a button and speaking into the device, he replied,

"This is Blair. Over."

Even through the walkie talkie, Jessie thought she heard anxiety in the voice of whoever Blair was speaking to ("Terry", she gathered) when he said,

"We've had some issues over at The Boss's. The prisoners are gone."

Blair frowned in displeasure. "What!? How?"

"We don't know," Terry answered. "We think Mrs. Sorrentino might have had something to do with it, though— we found her outside right after they escaped."

_Prisoners at Giovanni's? _Jessie thought. _Could that be…?_

Blair laughed. "The Boss's wife? No way. She ain't got enough smarts to pull a scheme like that. She's a trophy wife if I ever saw one."

Terry paused before speaking again, and Jessie got the impression that he didn't quite agree with Blair. Then, uncertainly, he continued, "Well, anyhow, now the captives are gone, running loose somewhere in Goldenrod City. The last place we saw them was at the game corner, but we don't know if they're still there."

Blair chuckled again, shaking his head. "How do you _not know, _Terry? Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were losing your touch."

"The doorman wouldn't let us in, that's how," Terry argued crossly. "The prisoners were in disguise as a magician and his assistant, I guess."

Jessie gasped. _The Magic Cat! They have to be talking about James and Meowth!_

Fin gave Jessie an inquisitive look, and Blair burst out laughing.

"Good one, Terry," he joked. "Seriously, though, The Boss ain't gonna be happy when he finds out you let them get away."

"We didn't 'let them get away'," Terry countered angrily. "But whatever. We think they might be headed your way to save their third musketeer, and we're gonna try to corner 'em before they reach you."

"Okay. Over and out," Blair answered apathetically, hooking the walkie talkie back onto his belt.

_James and Meowth might be coming here, _Jessie thought anxiously. _I want them to find me, but how will they protect themselves against those guards? They have no weapons!_

The guard sneered at Jessie and Fin once more before exiting the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Who are James and Meowth?" Fin asked Jessie as soon as the guard had left.

"What?" _Did I say those names aloud?_ she wondered.

"You seemed to know those prisoners he was talking about," Fin answered.

"They're my friends," Jessie replied, watching him warily. She hadn't forgotten about being slammed against the wall a few minutes ago.

"Why'd you all get locked up?" Fin asked, and Jessie was starting to get the impression he was being a little guarded with her, as well. "You said you asked too many questions. What _kind _of questions?"

"What, is this twenty questions?" Jessie inquired exasperatedly. _Nosy, much?_ Sighing, she continued, "We were over at The B— _Giovanni's_"— she quickly corrected herself— "house for dinner, asking him about legendary pokemon. Apparently, he didn't like that, so, just like that, we went from dinner guests to inmates." She hoped her explanation was enough for Fin; she didn't really want to tell him the whole story about how she used to be a member of Team Rocket. "Satisfied?"

"No," Fin said uneasily, standing up and backing away from Jessie.

"What's your problem?" she asked, sitting up and placing her hands on her hips.

"_You're _my problem," Fin retaliated angrily. "You're one of them, aren't you? What, did they put you in here to get dirt on me?"

"What? No, that's ridiculous!" Jessie protested.

"I don't think it is," countered Fin. "You just said you were having dinner with Giovanni, who's the CEO, right? And you were about to call him "The Boss", weren't you? That's what all the guards call him."

"Fin…" Jessie started, hoping she could calm him down.

"I should have known," he said bitterly, turning away from her and walking towards the opposite wall.

Jessie huffed in frustration, also rising to her feet and noticing she was still sore from her collision with the wall. _I'll probably have some bruises for a while, _she expected.

Putting her physical discomfort out of her mind, she confessed, "Okay, okay, so you're right about one thing— James, Meowth, and I did used to work for Team Rocket."

Fin looked back over his shoulder at her questioningly. "Team Rocket? You mean Rocket, Inc.?"

"Well, that was before they were Rocket, Inc. They started out small. James, Meowth, and I were with them at the very beginning. But about fifteen years ago, their focus changed… and the three of us quit."

"Changed from what to what?" Fin inquired, turning back to face her. He still looked guarded, but at least she'd managed to get his attention.

Jessie hesitated before continuing. _I could try to make it seem like Team Rocket was good and righteous, but I don't think he'd believe me, _she thought.

"Mostly, we tried to get rare and powerful pokemon for The Boss," Jessie explained. "He was always looking for pokemon that would make Team Rocket stronger."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Fin mused aloud, and Jessie started to breathe a sigh of relief. "Unless you were stealing them or something."

She looked at him sheepishly.

"Oh," he remarked, understanding.

"If it makes you feel any better, we weren't very successful at it," Jessie said. "We used to follow these twerps around—"

"Twerps?"

"_Kids,_" Jessie rephrased, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. "We followed these kids around because one of them had this incredibly strong pikachu that we wanted. I guess we were 'field agents'."

"So, you think that telling me you used to steal pokemon from children for a living is going to make me feel better about being locked in a cage with you?" Fin inquired disbelievingly.

Jessie opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. _When phrased that way, it does sound pretty bad, _she admitted.

"Well, yes," she answered finally, "but, as I said, we weren't very successful."

Fin raised an eyebrow. "Wow," he remarked, "Rocket Inc. _has _come a long way since then."

"Well, soon after that, they started tightening up. They got more… businesslike, I guess. James, Meowth, and I were called back to work at the corporate office in Celadon City."

"What happened to the kids?" Fin inquired, taking a few steps toward Jessie and tucking his leg under him to sit down.

"We don't know," Jessie replied. "It was weird, actually… One of the kids— Ash Ketchum— was a hotshot trainer who we thought would make headlines at the Pokemon League, but we never heard anything about him or his friends ever again. It was like he disappeared."

"That _is_ weird," Fin agreed. He tucked a lock of messy, greasy blond hair behind his ear. "So why'd you quit? And why'd you go back to see your ex-boss?"

Jessie explained to him everything about the corporate office— the sparse wages, the snotty senior officers, and the corrupt business practices that she and James had been under contract to hide. She told him about Raikou and Ho-Oh, and the storms approaching, and how Lance had suggested they question Giovanni in order to gather more information.

"Some plan that was," Fin commented sarcastically.

"We should have known," Jessie said, shaking her head. "Lance doesn't know The Boss like we do, but we listened to him anyway. But The Boss was so nice on the phone… we thought maybe he had changed."

"Some people will smile in your face and then slip Poison Powder into your potions," Fin said.

Jessie looked at him strangely, and he shrugged. "It's just something my dad used to say."

Jessie was then reminded that Fin was only a teenager, and she felt a twinge of guilt that maybe her actions while she worked for Team Rocket had, to a small extent, contributed to his being imprisoned fifteen years later.

…

The door to the underground wasn't locked, but James wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. _If this place is open at midnight, _he thought, _it's probably a haven for shady characters like… like… well, like me and Jessie. _Again, he was reminded of his longtime business partner and friend, who he was immensely worried about, and he tried not to be disheartened by the horrible scenarios of what could be happening to her that were manifesting in his head.

They entered the underground's foyer and descended down the stairs that led to its main corridor, prepared for the worst. However, upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, they found the place dark and completely deserted.

Some of the equipment that the local merchants used to set up shop was partially assembled; empty carts could be seen here and there, and folding tables and chairs leaned against the walls. However, there were no shopkeepers or customers to be seen. There weren't even any "trainers" (who were often criminals looking for an excuse to see if their opponents' pokemon were worth stealing) around.

James, Lance, and Meowth started walking cautiously down the hallway, which had high ceilings and a tiled floor.

"This is weird," Meowth remarked. "I don't see where they could be hiding Jessie, unless she's under the linoleum. Do you think Lady Boss gave us bad information?"

"I don't know," James answered uneasily, "but let's be sure we've looked everywhere before we make any decisions."

After they'd progressed about halfway down the long hallway, James noticed a narrower corridor on the left. _Maybe she's there, _James considered. It certainly looked like it could lead to a dungeon of some sorts— it was even darker and scarier than the rest of the deserted underground. _It's the kind of place you go in, but never come out, _James thought nervously, swallowing.

"That must lead somewhere," Lance said. "I think it's worth checking out." Unlike James, Lance didn't seem one bit afraid of the corridor. Boldly, he walked ahead of James and Meowth, who fidgeted anxiously. Then, upon noticing that his companions weren't following him, Lance gestured ahead and called, "Come on!"

James and Meowth complied, allowing Lance to lead them down the corridor. _If I could stand up to Ho-Oh and get away from The Boss's guards, this should be no problem, _James told himself. _Piece of cake. _

Unfortunately, the corridor proved to be a dead end, except for a locked door on the left.

Lance sighed, scratching his head. "If I were to bet on anything, I'd say they're keeping Jessie locked up somewhere behind this door. Thing is, I don't know how we're going to get through it." He tugged on the handle forcefully again. "It feels pretty heavy; it'd take a lot to break it down, and I think doing so would attract too much attention…"

"So what do you think we should do?" Meowth asked Lance.

"Get a key," Lance replied matter-of-factly.

James looked at him dubiously. _He says it like it's going to be easy..._

Lance removed a pokeball from his belt, enlarging it in preparation to release one of his pokemon.

"Go, Dragonite!" he exclaimed, and the seven-foot-tall, orange dragon appeared. It screeched and began lumbering toward its trainer excitedly, but Lance shushed it and petted its head soothingly.

"You have to stay quiet, Dragonite," Lance explained. "Jessie— a friend of these two— is in danger, and we need you to help us save her."

The dragon nodded earnestly, and James admired it a little enviously. Dragonite was the perfect pokemon— strong, yet respectful. In the past, James would have considered trying to steal it, but now, he just thought about catching one himself. _I'd have to find a dratini and evolve it,_ he considered. _Actually, that might not a bad plan… _

But now was not the time to make such plans— they needed to focus on Jessie's rescue.

"Alright," Lance instructed his pokemon, "go find a place to hide nearby." The dragon looked at him skeptically, and Lance gave it a look. "Don't worry, I know you can manage. There are some tables and carts you can hide behind."

James was a little incredulous himself that such a large creature would be able to conceal itself, but Dragonite complied, beating its wings to rise up from the floor, leaving the corridor and disappearing to the left.

A few minutes passed as James, Lance, and Meowth stood together in silence.

"What now?" James inquired.

"Now," Lance answered, "we wait."

"For who?"

Behind them, somebody yelled, "Freeze!"

"For them," Lance whispered, a tiny smirk finding its way onto his face.

…

Ariana jerked open the Radio Tower's front door and simply stood under its frame for a moment, studying Clair critically.

"Well, you certainly _look_ like you could be a gym leader," she commented sharply, "but why are you showing up here at midnight? Can't you wait until tomorrow to discuss converting Blackthorn City?"

Ariana was tall— about the same height as Clair— and her hair was a fiery red shade reminiscent of Jessie's. However, unlike Jessie, who Clair (albeit a little reluctantly) would call attractive, Ariana's face was too thin, her skin pulled tightly over her sharp cheekbones, and her mouth permanently turned down into a deep frown. It appeared she'd had a few procedures done to preserve her "youthful" appearance, and the skin on her forehead was unnaturally smooth, and the slant of her eyes overly accentuated.

"No," Clair answered earnestly, shaking her head. "There's a storm that's supposed to hit Blackthorn on Friday— _tomorrow_." _That's so close, _Clair realized fretfully. _We don't have much time! _Swallowing, she continued, "So I have to plan now how we're going to handle things after it's over. And I want to start by implementing Rocket Inc.'s system."

Ariana sighed impatiently, then stepped aside, gesturing for Clair to enter. "Alright, come on in. But let's make this quick. I need to finish up some last minute things and get to bed."

Clair eagerly entered, happy to be out of the rain. The base floor of the radio tower was dark, and, unsurprisingly, no one was manning the counter that ran along the wall. Ariana led Clair across the room to an elevator, pressing a round button which clicked and lit up.

In only a few seconds, the mechanical elevator's doors slid open, and a rectangular patch of yellow light was cast on the room's dark floor. Clair and Ariana stepped into the elevator and turned around, and Ariana pressed a round button that read "3".

As the elevator rumbled, steadily rising upward, Clair and Ariana stood in awkward silence. _This is a little nerve-wracking, _Clair thought. _How long should I keep up this act? She'll see right through me if I just outright ask about Mr. Jacoby._

"So, you're a dragon trainer," Ariana commented, and Clair nodded. Now that Ariana had toned down the hostility, she spoke in a flat, bored drawl, as if nothing Clair said could ever truly interest her. "I'd always wondered what raising dragons would be like. Of course, they're not approved company pokemon, so I've never used them. I imagine they're rather brutish."

"Not if they're trained properly," Clair countered, annoyed.

Ariana smirked arrogantly. "Rocket Inc.'s training techniques are streamlined and flawless," she boasted. "If we come to your town, you can rest assured that all pokemon will be 'trained properly' without exception."

The elevator came to a stop, and, again, the doors slid open. The third floor was dimly-lit, and as Clair and Ariana made their way across the room, Clair noticed that there were a number of writing desks, all of them mostly bare and neat as if they'd recently been tidied.

"We've had to fire some dead weight lately, and a lot of our employees cleaned out their desks today," Ariana explained.

"Why were they 'dead weight'?" Clair inquired, hoping that Ariana might give her a free clue about the fate of Mr. Jacoby.

Ariana gave her a sour look. "If you're going to be working with us, you've got to learn not to ask stupid questions," she said, "but, for your information, it was because they just weren't forward-thinking enough to get with the program. Rocket Inc. does things differently, but we do them better."

"Hmm," Clair grunted in acknowledgement. The two had reached a metal door that required a card key to pass, and Ariana produced one, zipping it through a slot on the wall. A light flashed green, and then the door slid open, allowing them passage.

On the left, there was a staircase, which Clair and Ariana began to ascend. At the top, they crossed another, smaller room, and went up another flight of stairs. _This place is huge, _Clair noted in amazement. Finally, they reached the fifth floor, entering a fully lit room, where a man sat at a table filling out paperwork. Next to the man was a radio broadcast microphone, and behind him stood large, black pieces of equipment and a stack of shelves.

Clair noticed that strewn around the room were little pokemon trinkets, all of them in the form of a teddiursa. There was a teddiursa paperweight on a shelf, a teddiursa calendar hanging on the wall, and, on the table, a shabby-looking teddiursa plush toy. _Interesting choice of decoration, _Clair thought, a little weirded out.

"Welcome to my office," Ariana announced proudly to Clair. She frowned and reached for the teddiursa doll, straightening it so that it sat upright.

The man sitting at the table looked up and frowned at Ariana. Clair recognized him as the man at the window she'd spoken to earlier. "_Your _office?" he inquired. "I thought it was _our _office."

"_My _office," Ariana repeated crossly. "I'm the new director, so this office is mine. Yours is the one downstairs. Plus, I've already moved all of my stuff in." Again, she casually reached for the teddiursa toy, this time straightening the pink bow around its neck.

"Nice bear," Clair commented awkwardly, still finding it strange that a woman like Ariana collected teddiursa knickknacks.

"Thank you," Ariana replied, apparently not hearing anything but a compliment in Clair's statement. "I've had it for a long time. Teddiursa is my favorite pokemon, but they're not company-approved, so I don't have one of my own."

"The office downstairs is half the size of this!" the man at the table interjected, still not ready to relinquish the argument. "I don't remember Giovanni saying anything about you getting this office."

Ariana scoffed, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. "Not now, Archer. We have someone here to discuss business with us. Clair, this is Archer, another top Rocket executive."

"Err… nice to meet you," Clair said uncertainly.

"Pleasure," the man replied indifferently. His face was pale and severe, and he had jet black hair (Clair could tell the color was too dark to be natural— it had that dyed, solid, glossy look that made it resemble a helmet) that hung down between his eyebrows, cut at a bizarre, slanted angle. His blue-green eyes were the color of murky water.

"Archer, give her your chair. She needs to sit down to sign the necessary documents," Ariana instructed him.

"What?" he questioned, obviously displeased. Ariana glowered at him in warning, and he complied begrudgingly, standing up and relocating to the other side of the table, where he and Ariana sat down next to each other.

Clair slowly eased herself into Archer's chair. _I don't want to actually sign any documents, _she thought as Ariana hunted through a drawer in search of the papers she needed. _I'm going to have to stall until I can find out about Mr. Jacoby._

Archer, uninterested in Clair, went back to his paperwork.

"Umm," Clair started, and Ariana stopped sifting through papers momentarily, glancing at her with irritation, "I actually have a few questions I have to ask before I sign anything. You know, for clarification."

"We can answer them while you sign," Ariana said matter-of-factly, resuming her search. "There are a lot of signatures we need, so it'll take a while, and I don't want to waste any time. You understand that this will have to be approved by the CEO, but we can get all the paperwork done tonight to speed up the process."

"Okay," Clair answered hastily, "but… do you maybe have a pamphlet or something I could look at, just for some more information?"

"There's the 'Rocket Inc. and You' handout," Archer suggested, looking up for a moment. "Where'd you stash those, Ariana?"

The woman growled in frustration, standing up quickly and walking over to the shelves behind Clair. Clair followed Ariana with her eyes, watching as she leafed through books, notebooks, and papers. "Do I have to do _everything_?" she grumbled. Clair was subtly reminded of Jessie.

Finally, Ariana handed her a glossy booklet entitled, "Rocket Inc. and You: What Our System Can Do for Your Town".

"Thanks," Clair said, flipping through it casually. The book was filled with pictures of happy people and pokemon and cheesy taglines like, "your pokemon journey is our priority". From the pamphlet, it appeared that Rocket Inc. was a selfless organization that "reformed" gyms, offering special training for all of their employees and, when needed, providing pokemon of any given type to the trainers to use during the gym battles. They also apparently regulated the starter pokemon given out when new trainers began their journeys, gifting them with "pokemon of only the highest quality".

Clair didn't like the fact that they referred to pokemon as "high-quality" at all; pokemon were living creatures, and there were no low-quality pokemon as far as she was concerned.

As she'd been reading, Ariana had returned to searching for the paperwork, and Clair suddenly heard a "plunk" as the Rocket executive set a two inch-thick stack of papers down on the table.

"Are your questions answered yet?" Ariana inquired pressingly.

"Yes, this is very helpful," Clair replied politely. "I just have one more question I'm not finding the answer to in here."

"What's that?" Ariana asked.

"Earlier, you said that Rocket Inc. lays off employees when they don't 'go with the program'," Clair began. Archer looked up from his paperwork and watched her warily. "So… what happens to those people?"

Ariana glared at her. "I told you not to ask stupid questions," she replied crossly. "It doesn't matter, anyway. As long as Blackthorn Gym's trainers follow our procedures, you'll have nothing to worry about."

Clair nodded. _Well, that was a big help,_ she thought sarcastically. _I guess I'm gonna have to try another tactic. _

"You know what," Clair said defiantly, standing up from her seat at the table, "I like asking questions."

"_What_?" Ariana inquired, as if floored that Clair would dare say such a thing. "Fix your attitude, or this deal's off!"

"I have a better proposal," Clair countered, her hand on one of her pokeballs. "You tell me what happened to Mr. Jacoby, or I destroy you in a pokemon battle!"

The two Rocket executives stood up from the table.

"I knew your voice sounded familiar!" Ariana shrieked, pointing at Clair. "You're the one who called on the phone, aren't you?"

"Tell me," Clair demanded.

Ariana shook her head, smirking. "I'm not telling you anything. You might be a gym leader, but there's no way you could defeat both of us in a battle."

"We'll see about that," Clair said, matching Ariana's smirk and ready to meet the challenge. "Go, Rana!"

She hurled her pokeball into the air, stepping to the side of the desk so that her dragonair would have enough room. When translucent red light had transformed into Rana's blue, scaly coils, Clair was ready.

Unfortunately, so were Ariana and Archer, and Clair could not have foreseen what came next.


	18. 11

Author's Note:I know I haven't responded to all my reviews from last week yet. I'm sorry! I had six textbook chapters to read last weekend, and this weekend isn't much better. I'll get back to you when I can...

Anyway, this is the last update I will post for a while. I'm hoping to post a chapter over Spring Break (which is in two weeks), but no guarantees. So... this is the "midseason finale" if you will (for now).

It's a little... dark. I hope you enjoy it anyhow.

~TheFrogFromHell

**11**

"Fine," Archer said coldly, his blue-green eyes flashing. "You want to trick us into inviting you in? Well then, we'll play dirty, too. Go, Houndour!"

"You too, Arbok!" shouted Ariana.

The two pokemon materialized in front of their trainers, and Clair smiled to herself. The pokemon's stats were nowhere near maxed out; their levels were only in the forties. Clair's dragons' levels were all at least in the eighties, and they had defeated many an arbok before. _One Surf attack will be more than enough to knock out Archer's houndour,_ Clair predicted confidently_._

"Two against one?" Clair questioned teasingly. "I'd say that was unfair, except that you're _still _no match for my one dragonair."

"We'll see about that," replied Ariana, grinning maliciously. "Arbok, Poison Sting."

"Get out of the way, Rana!" Clair ordered.

"Faint Attack, Houndour," Archer called out. Chillingly, the pokemon's form gradually faded away, becoming lighter and lighter, until it was completely invisible to Clair (and to Rana).

Rana was successful in dodging Arbok's attack. The pokemon's stinger, instead of striking Clair's dragon, connected with the surface of the table that they'd all been sitting around earlier.

Clair froze. _That's impossible._

Arbok had been able to drive its tail clean through the metal table, which had bent and crumpled slightly under the force of the attack.

_That was _not _a normal Poison Sting attack, _Clair thought in disbelief, overcome with the sinking feeling that maybe she'd been too hasty in challenging Rocket Inc.

"Rana," Clair called out instinctively, "use—"

But suddenly, Archer's houndour reappeared behind Rana, sinking its claws and teeth into the pokemon's neck.

"_No_!" Clair screamed as the houndour ripped away at her friend's neck as it screeched in pain and terror. "Stop! It's going to kill it!"

"Sorry," Archer said softly, but his icy stare and cruel grin revealed that he was not sorry at all. "But you asked for a battle, and that's what we're giving you."

The houndour, satisfied with the carnage, backed away from Rana, who now lay bloody and fainted on the floor. _It needs to get to a pokemon center immediately or it could die,_ Clair knew, but now she didn't know when (or if) she'd be able to get away from Ariana and Archer to get to one.

"Rana, return." Clair held up Rana's pokeball to recall the pokemon, her heart pounding and her eyes fixed on the floor where it had lain. _This isn't normal, _she thought, beginning to panic. She looked at Archer's houndour, who stood proudly, licking its lips, with bloodlust in its eyes. Ariana's arbok, she now noticed, was exactly the same way. Clair had never before witnessed such brutality, such pure _evil_, in a pokemon's expression.

"What… what's wrong with those pokemon?" Clair stammered in horror, taking a step back and wishing that what she'd just seen had only been a figment of her imagination.

"Didn't you read the pamphlet?" Ariana asked mockingly, laughing. "Rocket Inc. only uses pokemon of the highest quality. And to achieve that quality, some pokemon require… _enhancements_."

"Enhancements?" Clair inquired fearfully. "But… pokemon are living things, not machinery that can be tinkered with at will!"

"Pokemon are simply tools that can be used to achieve Rocket Inc.'s goals," Archer said emotionlessly, and Clair thought it sounded like he was reciting a line that somebody else had told him. _Maybe it's a Rocket Inc. official policy, _she thought in disgust.

"Are you going to send out your next pokemon or what?" Ariana demanded of Clair.

The Rocket executive's gleeful facial expression made Clair sick to her stomach. _I can't send any more pokemon out, _she thought in fear, _or they'll be torn apart just like Rana!_

"Come on, we're waiting!" the Rocket executive insisted impatiently. Clair got the impression she was thoroughly enjoying this.

_Maybe if I can get my pokemon to evade all of their attacks, I can win, _Clair considered. _I know if I could just get an attack in, I might have a chance._

"Shango, let's go," she finally called out reluctantly, sending her second dragonair into battle. This time, she didn't hesitate before instructing it to use DragonBreath.

The powerful breath attack shot out from her dragonair's mouth like a huge, white flame, fully engulfing Houndour and Arbok and lobbing off a third of each of their health points. It wasn't as much damage as it would have done to a normal houndour and arbok, but it was a start. _Now I have to make sure that Shango dodges their attacks, _Clair thought anxiously. _Arbok's shouldn't be too bad, since Shango can see them coming, but I'm worried about Houndour's Faint Attack…_

As soon as the dust had cleared from the DragonBreath attack, Clair noticed that the move had had another favorable effect – Houndour had been paralyzed.

Ariana, furious that her pokemon had been hit by Shango's attack, retaliated by instructing, "Arbok, use Wrap!"

"Shango, dodge it and use Slam on Houndour!" Clair countered.

"Houndour, Faint Attack!" Archer called out. Clair cringed in anticipation of the attack, but, fortunately for her, the dog pokemon was only able to stand still, quivering from the effects of paralysis.

Shango's Slam attack hit Houndour hard, and it flew backwards, colliding with the wall and falling to the floor, fainted. Archer recalled it bitterly, cursing.

Clair was tremendously relieved that she'd managed to take out Houndour, but she was still nervous about what was to come. _Who knows what other pokemon he has?_ she thought. _That was only his first one, and it might have been his weakest._

Ariana shrieked in frustration, a sound so strident it was painful to listen to.

"Arbok, get that thing! It's too fast, so let's slow it down. Glare!"

Arbok hissed, slithering around to face Claire's dragonair and staring at it hypnotically.

"Shango, don't look into its eyes! Use Thunder Wave!"

Shango's attack didn't miss, but, unfortunately for Clair, it was also unable to avoid Arbok's treacherous gaze. Both rendered paralyzed, the two serpentine pokemon stood immobile, their normally fluid coils now still.

It would have been a stalemate, with both Clair and Ariana on the edge of their seats waiting to see if and when one of the pokemon would be able to attack, had Archer not seized the opportunity.

"Koffing, let's go! Use Tackle on Dragonair," he yelled, releasing the poison-type pokemon, who cried, "Fing!"

It flew at Shango fast, hitting it hard and making a sickening "smack". The force of the assault knocked Shango backward, and it fell to the ground, lying sprawled on the floor. Still trembling from paralysis, Shango whimpered and looked to Clair for help.

"I'm sorry, Shango," she said softly, feeling terrible for making it battle these brutal opponents.

Koffing's tackle should have only taken off a few of Shango's health points, but, due to its "enhancements" (Clair wasn't even sure she wanted to know what those involved), the attack had reduced Clair's pokemon's HP to a third.

_Since it's paralyzed, it's too slow to evade attacks, and another hit will knock it out, _Clair thought. Reluctantly, she recalled Shango, not wishing for it to suffer the same fate as the first pokemon she'd used.

"Giving up already?" Ariana taunted. "I must say, I thought the dragon-type would pose more of a challenge. I'm disappointed."

Clair glared at her. "Don't worry, my next pokemon won't let you down," she said, releasing her third and final dragonair, January.

"Jan, use Ice Beam on Arbok!" Clair shouted. Due to years of using the attack, January had perfected it, now attacking with near-perfect accuracy and concentrated force that made it a critical hit almost every time.

As Clair had predicted it would, it struck Arbok with practiced precision.

"Aaaaar!" the serpent protested, writhing from the cold, thrashing its lethal tail back and forth violently. January was careful to duck out of its way.

Unfortunately, Archer was ready with another attack. "Koffing, SmokeScreen!"

_There goes January's accuracy, _Clair thought worriedly as the room was filled with a dark cloud of smoke.

The smog was so thick that Clair couldn't make out any of the pokemon through it. _At least it puts the other two at as much of a disadvantage as January, _she thought. _Ice Beam is out, but maybe I can use…_

"DragonBreath, now!" she commanded.

Through the smoke, Clair saw the white, glowing light characteristic of the attack. She heard pained noises from Arbok and Koffing, so she knew January had at least grazed them. She waited anxiously for the cloud of smoke to disperse, clenching her fists tightly and gritting her teeth.

In a few moments, the smoke had cleared enough for Clair to make out the outline of Arbok, lying fainted on the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief at that, but she also noticed that Koffing had withstood the attack, hovering around the room smugly at half HP.

Clair also saw something else that disturbed her – January's HP was already one third gone. _One of them must have attacked it while they were all inside the cloud of smoke, _Clair deduced. _I have to be careful. This is my last pokemon with a chance to win; Kingdra will be a sitting duck outside of water._

"January," Clair instructed, "whatever you do, don't let Koffing hit you. Use DragonBreath again!"

The pokemon opened its mouth and produced the powerful breath attack, but Koffing quickly rose up in the air, evading it.

"Sludge!" Archer ordered, and Koffing spit thick, dark, foul-smelling gunk out of its mouth. January rolled to the side, narrowly missing the attack.

"Good job, Jan!" Clair complimented it, relieved. "Now, Ice Beam! Keep using it until it hits!"

January aimed its Ice Beam at Koffing, who dodged it. Immediately, Dragonair redirected its attack, but, again, Koffing was able to evade it. This process continued, with January attacking and the opposing pokemon avoiding it, until finally, the beam hit Koffing straight on, knocking it back against the wall.

"Fiiiing!" the pokemon objected, squirming as it was struck by the onslaught of ice. As its HP was reduced, the pokemon's struggling lessened in intensity, until it was completely still, unable to escape its fate. January ceased its attack, and the fainted Koffing fell to the ground with a "plop".

Clair didn't have long to celebrate this, though, because immediately she noticed something that she hadn't before since she'd been too focused on the interplay between January and Archer's koffing.

Ariana had released another one of her pokemon – a vileplume. Usually, Clair found vileplume to be sort of cute in a silly way. They were not Clair's favorite, but she'd never minded them much. However, there was something… well, _vile_,about Ariana's vileplume. Its red, beady eyes flashed spitefully at Clair, contrasting with its darker-than-normal, shriveled skin. Its body was thinner and more muscular than the vileplume Clair had seen in the past, and its sly smirk warned her she would need to watch out for cruel, sneaky battle tactics.

"No more playing around," Ariana said, glancing at Archer with disgust. Turning back to her pokemon, she ordered, "Vileplume, Acid!"

"Jan, out of the way!"

The grass pokemon spit a steady stream of acid from its mouth, directing it straight at Clair's pokemon. January was mostly able to avoid the attack, but a few drops of the dangerous liquid made contact with the dragon's tail. January howled in pain as those portions of its scaly skin sizzled, becoming red and raw, and Clair winced.

The dragon master also noticed that the acid that had spilled on the floor was eroding the tile, making it bubble and smoke. _I've never seen an Acid attack that concentrated, _she thought, worried that next time, more of the liquid might find its way onto her pokemon's skin.

"January, Ice Beam!" Clair shouted, and the dragon expertly aimed the attack at Vileplume.

Vileplume jumped up and down, dancing and twirling and causing some of the ice to ricochet off its petals. It did, however, take some damage— its HP was reduced by a third.

_This isn't good, _Clair thought, noticing something._ Ice Beam is the only attack that's super effective against the grass type, and it's almost out of PP after battling Koffing._

Meanwhile, Archer had revealed his third and final pokemon – a houndoom.

Clair shuddered, remembering Archer's houndour's brutal treatment of her first dragonair. _Please hang on, _she thought desperately about Rana, wishing this battle would just end. _If the unevolved form of Houndoom was that powerful, I don't know if January is capable of defeating this one._

She narrowed her eyes in concentration, weighing her options. _If I recall my pokemon now, it's all over, _Clair thought. Determinedly, she decided, _We have to try. If it looks like January is going to get seriously hurt, I will recall it before it does. _

"Jan, DragonBreath!" Clair commanded. _It worked before, _she thought. _Maybe it'll work again._

Vileplume and Houndoom avoided the attack, moving away at a frighteningly fast speed and coming to stand behind January's back, ready to strike.

"Watch out!" Clair yelled in panic. "Behind you!"

Archer laughed evilly, mirth dancing in his muddy blue-green eyes, and he ordered, "Houndoom… _Crunch_!"

_I've got to do something! _Clair decided hastily. "January, counteract it with Slam!"

The dragonair whipped its tail around, swinging its long, heavy body toward the two opposing pokemon. Houndoom had lunged forward in preparation to clamp its jaws around January's neck, but since the dragon had moved, the dark-type dog ended up pouncing on January's tail instead. Clair heard a snapping sound and realized that it was her pokemon's bones breaking. Tears sprung to her eyes. _This has to stop, _she determined, regretting her decision not to recall January.

The dragonair screeched in agony, and it thrashed its body violently, knocking Vileplume back and jarring Houndoom, who stubbornly refused to let go of January's tail.

"Plume!" Vileplume exclaimed as it slid and fell into a pile of its own acid, crying out as the liquid seared its skin.

Ariana, completely apathetic, yelled harshly, "Stop mucking around, Vileplume! Get up!" The pokemon complied, but, as it did so, more acid burned the bottoms of its feet, and it hopped around aimlessly, wailing in pain.

Even more than before, Clair suddenly felt a burning hatred towards Ariana. _Pokemon should _never_ be treated that way, _she thought furiously.

January thrashed forcefully again, this time slamming Houndoom against the metal table, which tipped over on its side, spilling all the papers and radio equipment on the floor. Houndoom howled in pain and released January's tail. Impulsively, without being ordered to, it opened its mouth and spit flames at Clair's pokemon.

"Houndoom, _no_!" Archer yelled frantically, and Clair quickly realized why: Vileplume had stepped directly into the path of the flames. _Grass-types are weak against fire, _she thought. _Vileplume has no chance!_

Houndoom, however, didn't appear to care about Vileplume at all. Both January and the grass pokemon were engulfed in flames, and the dark-type canine simply sat back and watched smugly.

"Damn you, Archer!" Ariana yelled. "Learn to control your pokemon! I knew you couldn't handle that houndoom the second Giovanni assigned it to you."

Archer had no comeback for her; he just clenched his jaw, observing the aftereffects of Houndoom's attack tensely, and Clair realized he was well aware it was his fault.

When the flames had died down, Vileplume had fainted (as Clair had expected) but, amazingly, January still clung to consciousness by a thread of about three health points. It looked miserable, whimpering and barely able to move. The end of its tail was scorched, bleeding, and unnaturally flat – Clair knew that Houndoom must have crushed some of its bones with its Crunch attack. _It won't stay conscious for long, _Clair knew. _It might be bleeding internally… it needs a pokemon center as soon as possible._

Even though she could force January to keep battling, as Ariana or Archer undoubtedly would have done, Clair recalled it to its pokeball where it would be safe.

"We have to stop this," Clair pleaded, knowing that her protests would likely prove to be pointless. "This is no battle – this is a death match!"

"You're just not happy that you're losing," Ariana said as she recalled Vileplume, her earlier teasing tone all but gone. Now, she only glowered at Clair with hatred, clutching her third and final pokeball tightly.

"Aren't either of you worried about your pokemon at all?" Clair inquired, though, in all honesty, she already knew the answer to that question.

Ariana shrugged. "Our pokemon never lose," she replied matter-of-factly, "but even if they did, we could just get new ones. That's the beauty of Rocket Inc. – whatever we need is at our fingertips. If only you hadn't been so foolish as to challenge us, you could appreciate that beauty, too."

_It means nothing to them when pokemon die, _Clair thought in horror, though, disturbingly, she was not surprised by this. _To them, pokemon are just like weapons of war that can be replaced._

"So," Archer said darkly, "what's your next pokemon?"

"No more," Clair said, shaking her head resolutely. _I'll have to find out what happened to Mr. Jacoby another way, _she decided. _That is, if I can get out of here…_ "I'm done. I'm not like you. I refuse to treat living creatures like this."

Ariana laughed cruelly. "It's too late to back down now, dragon master."

Clair cringed at the cutting way Ariana had emphasized "dragon master".

"You brought this battle on yourself," Archer added. "If you won't send out a pokemon, then our pokemon will just attack _you _instead!"

"You wouldn't," Clair said uneasily, her stomach turning. "Pokemon attacks would kill a human."

"Oh, we'd be careful not to kill you," said Ariana, her eyes lighting up in anticipation. "If you died, you couldn't truly appreciate the power of our pokemon's attacks. You're familiar with some of Houndoom's attacks already, of course…"

The dark-type pokemon bared its teeth at her, and she could see that the pokemon was just itching to tear her to shreds.

"But you haven't seen the best part yet," Archer said, grinning excitedly. "When dark-type attacks are used on a human, they don't do much physically, but" – he tapped on his head with his pointer finger – "they do all the damage up here. Dark-type attacks get in your head, and they never, ever leave."

"You won't be able to battle, or lead your gym, or even carry on a conversation," Ariana added ominously. "And that's where Rocket Inc. will come in again, to give Blackthorn City a proper gym leader. But you won't even know that's happening. All you'll be able to do is scream."

She paused, and a foreboding silence filled the room.

The expressions on the Rockets' faces told Clair that they were deathly serious, but if she had to make a choice between watching her pokemon die and losing her sanity, she'd choose losing her sanity. _And if my pokemon fight and lose, Ariana and Archer's pokemon will probably attack me anyway after the battle's over. _

"Fine then," she declared. "Bring it on. I'm not going to allow my pokemon to be killed trying to defend me."

There was a sudden flash of translucent red light, and Clair gasped. Then, two pokemon materialized in front of her – Kingdra, and another one she didn't recognize right away.

_Who's that? _she wondered, but then she remembered the pokemon that the Karate King had given her when she and Lance had met him inside Mt. Mortar. She could see that the pokemon was small, young, and inexperienced, and without even looking at its stats she determined that it stood no chance against Rocket Inc.'s unnaturally strong pokemon. _Kingdra doesn't pose much of a challenge either, since it can barely move around on land, _Clair thought.

Archer and Ariana doubled over laughing.

"_Those _pokemon think they can defend you?" Ariana questioned between fits of giggles. "A kingdra and a tyrogue? How hilariously absurd!"

_Tyrogue, _Clair remembered, _the pre-evolved form of hitmonchan, hitmonlee, and hitmontop. _The pokemon resembled a scrawny human child – pathetically small in comparison to Archer's houndoom. It watched its opponents intently, and the determination in its wide, innocent eyes would have been almost comical had the situation not been so dire. It was very noble and brave for the pokemon to try to defend Clair without even knowing her yet, but she didn't want either of her remaining pokemon to suffer the grave consequences of battling with Rocket, Inc.

"Kingdra, Tyrogue, return! I don't want you getting hurt!" Clair protested, holding up her pokeballs and recalling them. However, to her dismay, the pokemon defied her and simply exited their pokeballs again. Having all eight Johto gym badges should have forced them to follow her instructions, but she knew that it had been documented that sometimes, under extreme circumstances, pokemon were able to override that rule.

Ariana laughed again. "What do you say, Archer?" she asked her partner. "Do you think we should make this last match an even-steven two-on-two battle?"

"Sounds perfect to me," Archer replied, smirking tauntingly at Clair.

"Go, Murkrow!" Ariana called out, releasing her final pokemon.

The beam of red light shot into the air, quickly forming dark wings, wiry talons, and a hat-like arrangement of feathers atop its head. Two mischievous red eyes peeked out from underneath the feathers, and Clair swore that the pokemon's beak was curved into an impish smile.

_There's something different about this one, _Clair thought as she studied the pokemon. Curious, and unsure if Ariana would answer her or not, she inquired,

"Has this one had its _enhancements, _as well?"

Ariana laughed. "I told you that only _some _pokemon require enhancements," she reminded Clair. "I trained this pokemon myself, and it's so powerful that it doesn't need any."

The pokemon landed on Ariana's shoulder, eyeing Clair. "Krow?" it remarked, cocking its head to the side. Clair caught Archer rolling his eyes at Ariana's statement and wondered what that meant.

"I'm tired of waiting," Archer announced. "Let's get this battle started! Houndoom, Flame Thrower!

"Kingdra, use Surf!" Clair countered.

"Murkrow, Faint Attack!" Ariana instructed, and the pokemon's form slowly faded away until it had disappeared from her shoulder.

The fire and water collided, creating steam. Since Kingdra had the type advantage, the water canon it shot out of its mouth eventually extinguished the flame, reaching Houndoom and spraying its face. The pokemon howled, and its HP was reduced by a quarter. Between Kingdra's Surf and January's attack earlier, it was down to about half its strength. _It's going to be a trick getting its HP even lower than that, though, especially since now Murkrow's attacking us too, _Clair thought. Then, alarmed, she realized that Murkrow still hadn't reappeared. _Wait… where is it?_

"Guys, watch out!" Clair warned her pokemon. "It'll come right out of thin air!"

She jumped in surprise as she felt something touch her head lightly. _It feels like somebody's hand, but smaller… what the heck?_

Suddenly, she heard a voice above her head call out, "Murkrow! Krow, Murkrow!"

_Why is it on my head?_

"Murkrow, stop that and attack the others!" Ariana screamed.

"Krow," the pokemon replied defiantly.

_Is it refusing to obey her?_ Clair wondered. _Why would it do that?_

Archer growled in frustration. "That thing's such a nuisance," he remarked angrily. "Get yourself a proper pokemon!"

"I could say the same about you, with that useless houndoom!" Ariana retaliated. The fire pokemon turned to her, offended, and snarled.

Still atop Clair's head, Murkrow cackled.

Clair saw her chance. "Kingdra, again, Surf!"

This time, Houndoom didn't see the attack coming, and it was hit full on by the massive wave of water. It was knocked back into Archer, who cried out as he was propelled backwards, landing on the floor with a fainted Houndoom on top of him.

"Aaarrgh… that _idiot_!" Ariana exclaimed furiously. Turning back to her pokemon, she instructed, "Alright, Murkrow, it's up to you! Night Shade!"

The pokemon gracefully lifted up from Clair's head, and, suddenly, the room began to darken. _Oh no, _Clair thought in terror, _it's over. _But then she realized that she, Murkrow, and her two pokemon were standing in a circle of light, while the rest of the room was shrouded in darkness. She could no longer see or hear Ariana and Archer, and she wondered if they had been afflicted by the attack. _That's odd, _Clair thought. _It's like it's attacking its own trainer instead of us! _

"Krow!" the pokemon shrieked, landing on the remains of the metal table and facing Clair.

"What are you…" Clair started awkwardly. "Are you… _helping _us?"

"Krow, Murk," the pokemon replied with a nod.

Clair gaped. "Why?"

The bird tipped its head back, opened its beak, and cackled again. Clair got the impression that the pokemon was only toying with her, using her for whatever purpose it saw fit, but, given the situation, she didn't mind. _Maybe, if we're lucky, it will still help us to get out of here, _she hoped.

"Rouge," Clair heard a small voice call. She glanced over to see the tiny tyrogue eyeing the murkrow distrustfully. The murkrow only cackled again, and, with a mischievous glint in its eye, it faded away as if performing a Faint Attack.

"Hey!" Clair yelled, panicked. _Maybe it _was_ a trick, _she considered fearfully, _and now it's going to finish off my pokemon!_

The murkrow reappeared next to her tyrogue, who yelped in pain and surprise as Murkrow nipped its shoulder with its beak playfully.

Cackling in amusement, the murkrow returned to its perch atop the table as Tyrogue rubbed its shoulder and frowned crossly.

"Ty," the pokemon remarked to Clair, and she could tell it was not happy with their new acquaintance.

"Sorry," Clair told it, though she was actually thankful that the bird had not attempted to seriously damage Tyrogue.

Turning back to Ariana's murkrow, Clair inquired, "Why are you helping us? What do you want?"

"Krow," the pokemon replied casually, fluttering over to Clair and perching on her shoulder. She gasped in alarm as the pokemon bent down and grasped for something at her neck with its beak. Her two pokemon cried out in protest.

_What the—_

Then, Clair sighed in relief as the bird clutched at what was hanging around her neck – her Silver Wing.

"Krow, Murkrow," the pokemon said as it tugged on the object, attempting to free it from the twine it was hanging on.

"You want my Silver Wing?" Clair questioned in confusion. _What would a pokemon want with that? _she wondered.

"Murk," the pokemon affirmed.

_Maybe if I give it the Silver Wing, it will help us get out of here, _Clair considered. _But if I try to bargain with it, how do I know it won't just trick me?_

"Murkrow," Clair began firmly, making a quick decision, "if you want my necklace, you can have it. But you have to help us out first."

The pokemon cackled again, sounding more like a hyena than a bird pokemon. Then, to Clair's shock, it opened its beak and spoke.

"I make the decisions around here," it said in a voice that sounded remarkably like Ariana's, and Clair gaped.

"You can _talk?_" she inquired in disbelief.

"I make the decisions around here," the pokemon repeated in exactly the same manner. "I'm the director."

_It's not actually speaking for itself, _Clair realized. _It's just mimicking things it's heard Ariana say._

"Well, are you going to help us out, or not?" Clair asked.

The pokemon tugged at her Silver Wing necklace again. "Krow," it responded, and lifted off her shoulder, flapping its wings and hovering in front of Clair and her pokemon. It glanced in the direction of the door, which was hidden in darkness, as if encouraging them to follow it out.

Clair noticed Kingdra and Tyrogue exchanging wary glances.

"What do you think, guys?" Clair asked her pokemon. "Should we trust it?"

"Rouge," Tyrogue replied unsurely.

"Kingdra… dra," the dragon added in dismay.

Clair got the impression that her pokemon felt almost the same way as she did – unsure if they could really trust Murkrow, but not seeing another alternative.

"Well then, I guess we have no choice," she decided. "Murkrow, lead the way."

Turning to her dragon, Clair said apologetically, "Sorry, Kingdra, but I have to recall you since you can't move around on land very well. But don't worry – we'll be out of here soon." _At least, I hope we will_.

Reluctantly, the pokemon complied, returning to its pokeball. Tyrogue gave Clair a pleading look, so she decided to leave it out of its ball. _For a pokemon that doesn't know me very well, it's sure insistent on protecting me, _she thought.

As they made their way toward the door, the circle of light that surrounded them moved with them, and Clair figured that Murkrow was responsible for that. She remembered what Archer had told her about dark-type attacks being used on humans – _"dark-type attacks get in your head, and they never, ever leave"_ – and she shivered, wondering if that's what was happening to Archer and Ariana. _Would Murkrow really do that to its own trainer? _she wondered uneasily. She prayed that Murkrow would honestly lead Clair and her pokemon out instead of doing the same thing to them.

They followed the same path that she and Ariana had taken on the way up, again passing through the dark rooms that contained the many empty work desks.

_My dragons need a pokemon center badly, so if we get out of here, I'll be satisfied, _Clair thought, _but I still wonder what happened to Mr. Jacoby. Now that I've seen what Ariana and Archer are capable of… _Clair shuddered. She hoped that Mr. Jacoby hadn't had to battle them like she had. _Are all Rocket Inc. pokemon like that? _she considered, disturbed by the notion. _Maybe that's how the organization got so powerful – no one can beat their pokemon without their own pokemon getting seriously injured or dying!_

Finally, Clair, Tyrogue, and Murkrow reached the elevator that would take them down to the base floor. Thankfully, no card key was needed to operate it, so, at the push of a button, the doors slid open, and the group stepped inside.

The elevator rumbled to life, and Clair watched Murkrow inquisitively as it did something very strange. On the elevator's ceiling was a loose panel that Clair hadn't noticed before. Murkrow, flying to the top of the elevator, nudged the panel aside, ascending into the elevator shaft above.

_What's it doing? _Clair wondered. Then, oddly, several objects fell down from the shaft – a bracelet, a tiny trinket in the shape of a teddiursa that Clair suspected had belonged to Ariana at some point, and a key.

Clair noticed that all of the objects had a trait in common – they were all polished silver. _That's right, _she thought, remembering something she'd read before, _murkrow are attracted to shiny objects. That must be why this one wants my Silver Wing!_

The murkrow flew back into the elevator, sliding the panel back into place as it did so. It descended down to the floor, standing proudly in front of its collection.

"Krow," it declared, pointing its beak toward Clair's Silver Wing. "Murk, krow!"

"Not so fast, Murkrow," Clair reminded it. "We're not out of here yet. I'll give it to you once we're outside."

"Murkrow," the pokemon replied impatiently.

Finally, once the elevator came to a stop, its doors parted, and Clair, Tyrogue, and Murkrow stepped out into the dark, spacious base floor.

Nervously, Clair began walking towards the front door with Tyrogue tagging along behind her. _If this _is _a trick, then this is the part where Murkrow will attack us, _she thought warily, sneaking glances over her shoulder at the bird pokemon as they approached the exit.

However, to her relief, the pokemon did not attack – it saw them to the door and allowed the three of them to step outside.

Immediately, Ariana's pokemon flapped its wings hurriedly and demanded, "Krow!"

Clair sighed, facing Murkrow. _I'd better hold up my end of the bargain, _she thought, unclasping the Silver Wing from her neck reluctantly. She didn't really want to part with it, but she didn't see another way for them to get away from the Radio Tower, and she needed to get to a pokemon center quickly.

Tossing the object to Murkrow, she said, "Here you go. Add it to your collection, and we'll be off."

The pokemon caught the Silver Wing happily in its beak, hopping around in a circle mirthfully. Clair and Tyrogue turned on their heels, ready to take off, when strangely, Clair heard the pokemon say in a voice almost identical to Archer's, "Nine five two four five."

Clair whirled around to see the pokemon's form growing fainter and fainter, fading into the darkness of the base floor.

"What?" she asked confusedly. _Nine five two four five, _she repeated in her mind. _That's a weird number… maybe it's something I should remember. Nine five two four five…_

As the pokemon dematerialized, Clair noticed something on the ground – a key. _This looks like the one that Murkrow had in the elevator shaft, _she thought, picking it up. _Did it leave this for us?_

"Umm... thanks," Clair called out, though she was fairly certain that Murkrow had already gone.

Pocketing the key, she turned to Tyrogue. "We need to get to a pokemon center _now,_" she said frantically, turning back around and starting to run towards Goldenrod's center.

"Rogue," the pokemon concurred.

_Rana… Shango… January, _she thought, clutching her pokeballs protectively, _please hang on._


End file.
